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Lyngdorf TDAI-3400

Well, after reading all the rave reviews of the Lyngdorf TDAI-2170 both here and other places, I decided to order a TDAI-3400 for myself.  I must admit I am still skeptical that such a diminutive piece of equipment can sound better than the Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP tube amp weighing more than 50 lbs, but I have been so intrigued by everything I have read I simply had to pull the trigger. 
I just unboxed it today, hooked everything up, and am listening to it for a while before setting up Room Perfect. 
I really want to hear the what the amp sounds like as-is for a bit to understand it better. 
First impressions:  Without Room Perfect it sounds like very nice solid state amps I've owned in the past, but to be honest, I don't find the sound to be particularly moving.  I moved to tubes after years of solid state, and I swore I would never go back.  That is where I'm coming from.  I should also add that I always try to keep an open mind.  While my initial take on it might sound like I don't like it, I hope folks just read this as me being as honest as possible about what I hear.  I know the tendency when buying new gear is to want so badly to love it in order to justify the expense that it's easy to fool oneself into believing it's an improvement over what you had before, even when it's not.  Of course I really want it to be as mind blowing as it has been built up in my mind to be, but if it's not I am OK with simply moving back to what I have liked so far.   
I have only been playing records through it so far.  Analog makes up 98% of my listening so that's where I am starting with it.  I have a nice CD transport that I will connect to it in the next day or so just to hear the DAC in the unit.  I will also experiment with playing files from USB sticks, computer audio from my MacBook Pro, and whatever else I decide.  I am not prepared to purchase a music server just yet, but it's something I have thought about for a while.  
My system:  speakers are Harbeth Monitor 40.1's.  Turntable is an SME 20/2 with SME IV.iv tonearm and Kiseki Purple Heart cartridge, fed to a Parasound JC-3+ phono preamp.  Power conditioner is Audioqest Niagara 7000.  CD transport is a Wadia 8.  
I will report back as I have more time to experiment and let the amp break in.  

128x128snackeyp
mes
386 posts
 

Using an outboard dac or vinyl, isn't the amp still A/D/A'ing the signal?

The 2170 did.

radiohead99
62 posts
 
I have been exclusively using DSD upsample through Roon/HQPlayer for the last 4 years. I was upsampling everything to DSD 512 through my T+A DAC8 DSD. It took the sound quality of my rig to new heights!! However, when I decided to simplify my system to Lyngdorf TDAI 2170, I was very skeptical of giving up the DSD512 upsample.

But anyway, after prioritizing simplicity I went with the 2170. Now I can only upsample to DSD128. I can clearly hear a significant difference between playing pure PCM vs upsample to DSD128. I know Lyngdorf converts everything to 24/96 internally. But it must be so transparent. I wish 3400 supports DSD too, especially in higher bit rate DSD. Also, if the streamer on 3400 doesn't support DSD, there's no point of using that streamer (for me).
gallus
13 posts
 
What prevented me from even demoing the amp is that it digitizes the analogue signal no matter if the source is connected to the standard inputs or through the optional "high-end ""analogue"" module". A big no for a stereo system IMO but it should work fine in a HT.
jcarcopo's avatar
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jcarcopo
364 posts
 
@gallus It’s direct dac-amp why would expect it not to convert the analog to pwm digital? Why do you think there’s something inherently wrong with this? You can by an ADC for $25 that will work to convert vinyl or a AM/FM tuner to digital and feed it to a DAC to run source direct from said DAC, competantly. You can spend $1000-$2500 to do the same thing with a professional studio level grade device. Surely the quality of the ADC in the $7200 Lyngdorf loaded with the superior analog input stage would be far superior to a cheap spdif converter ADC. In the Lyngdorf the analog signal is simply converted to a PWM signal to be directly converted to amplified sound which is actually a very pure pathway imho because the signal is converted to analog in the amplifier and not in a conventional DAC, per se. People have posted excellent results with vinyl and other analog signals fed through the tdai-2170 and tdai-3400, and are happy with the results. A recording engineer friend once stated to me that a person couldn’t even tell the difference between an analog signal converted to digital and back to analog and back to digital and back to analog over 10 times and even at this point they wouldn’t notice an audible difference in A/B/X testing. This "digital is evil" notion is dated and played out to death. I respect your opinion of course, but disagree with it and that’s okay. I just think you’re ruling out an excellent sounding product out of hand.
gallus
13 posts
 
Jcarcopo, thanks for the insights. Even though I was economical in my words there is no place to infer I demonized digital. Well, the very idea of considering anything Lyndorf makes it very clear.
I am aware and actually adept of the digitizing of analogue media but it makes no sense for the sole purpose of reproducing it through analogue sources, psychoacoustical considerations notwithstanding.  Sorry but as good, easy and clever as it is, digital still can´t beat a well thought and adequately set analogue system. 
That is why in my case TDAI does not present an optimal solution but if I decided to go 100% digital I would certainly consider it.
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