The price of the Lampizator transport is rather steep, at over 2,000 Euros. For a bit less, once could set up an SB slaved to a Pace-Car from Empirical Audio. In addition to outputting spdif, it can also output reclocked i2s. To me, this is a much better solution. Or, if one wants to avoid the Squeezebox altogether, the Emprical Audio Offramp offers the same flexibility.
That makes a lot of sense and I believe the Pace-Car is the only usb-I2S that ticks all my boxes (I think)
- low jitter clocks
- I2S reclocked
- low noise PSU's
- galvanic iso of I2S
Unfortunately with ALL the add ons (best clocks etc) it's up around $2k.
T
Indeed, it is not an inexpensive solution, but everything is relative. For example, what would it cost to acquire one of the preferred transports here, make modifications to it and then maintain it? I think the cost is the same, or perhaps more, yet I doubt it would sound as good as the computer based solution. To me and from my observations, as well as from a technical point of view, the computer based solution sounds better. Plus, there is no Reed Solomon error correction so it is bit perfect, as well as better performance with respect to electrical and mechanical induced jitter. This does not take into consideration the added convenience, as well. A relatively stock version without the add ons sounds great, too. I guess it is a question of diminishing returns.
Relative to the Lampizator solution, it is clearly less expensive and I think a clearly better solution. A DIY solution is possible, but I do not think it would be that easy to implement. For sure it is worth a try. For the moment, the only choice for me is a Pace-Car SB solution.
