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WIKI: Aphrodite (/ˌæfrəˈdaɪtiː/, AF-rə-DY-tee) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretised Roman goddess counterpart Venus, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory.
The key highlights
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Based on an improved Horizon360 state of the art digital engine
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Puristic design without preamp or volume control - JUST DAC
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“Open” budget - bespoke design and execution
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No feedback, no silicon, no solid state, no opamps
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Tube Rolling Paradise
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Cost allocation is 80% music quality, 10% convenience, 10% looks
From the designer:
I am so extremely happy to introduce to you our Lampizator’s brainchild - the Aphrodite.
Thanks to a revolutionary chip technology, like nothing we ever saw before - it was possible to design a DAC that creates a class of its own. Never in the sixteen years since LampizatOr's founding have we taken on such an ambitious, expensive and labor intensive project. Even the Horizon is dwarfed by it.
From new huge EI custom transformers, custom 4 layer PCB, 20 separate power circuits, ultra high end music conversion topology, customised “garbage” muting solutions, proprietary firmware and software, the chip that revolutionises the industry, new tube scheme, new tube selection, TRP (tube rolling paradise setup), new CNC chassis, new heating scheme, new uber cool dual OLED display, elimination of knobs, elimination of LCD displays, new USB solution with super-clocking, anti-vibration CNC milled support for all PCBs, elimination of visible screws - everything about this DAC is exciting, re-thought and re-designed.
The resulting DAC is a true flagship. We can say with full confidence that you are getting a unique masterpiece of craftsmanship that will redefine what you believed possible and may even never be surpassed.
The most important difference versus the former flagship - the Horizon DAC is that we eliminated the volume control and preamp circuits. Since we learned that 80% of users play the Horizon with volume maxed out - we decided to offer a fixed volume DAC because almost everybody has a preamp.
Who needs another new model of DAC? Nobody, it seems, but we did it nevertheless for the statement: We are capable of building the worlds best sounding DAC. The overwhelming success of the Horizon DAC and then the 360 upgrade gave us an impulse to design with an open mind and open budget. We couldn't just stop after the horizon, the wheels once turning can not stop! The BIG question was: what if we liquidate all the limitations that were holding the sanity of Horizon360 design? What if there were no limits, if WE ARE setting the playing field? What if money is no object, weight is no object, there are no norms, the look is nobody's business and size is whatever it needs to be? What if finding customers is not a concern, getting the approval of any stakeholders is not a concern, following the rules is a thing of the past and taking a risk - it is in our blood? What if nobody did anything similar in the past, if all solutions are from outside of the box, if all parts needed to be custom ordered and redesigned? What if life is too short to conform, to follow and to be second or third? What if we are not interested in the silver medal? What if all our competitors will declare a war on us? And on top of that our old customers will call us insane? This APHRODITE DAC is the answer: It is a result of 16 years of constant development of us as a design and execution team. It is a direct 2 year programme of unprecedented intensity of design, research and investment It is a result of hundreds of meeting with the world's most advanced audiophiles around the world and listening to what they dream about. It dwarfs all our previous efforts PUT TOGETHER In terms of sound quality we took a leap to uncharted territory. Considering the sound quality alone, all the many things that people will criticise about this project are UNIMPORTANT WHITE NOISE. Curious? Come to Warsaw Audio Show on Oct 24 2025 in National Stadium Warsaw - we will be in the biggest room of all Audio Shows ever - our magnificent ROOM AMSTERDAM with 340 square meters of pure MAGIC TRIP. What an occasion to debut our best DAC ever.
Whats different compared to the Horizon flagship of ours? In one word - it is freedom. Horizon was designed meticulously to serve as a selling proposition and to this end it had to fulfill certain criteria of size, weight, features, price, certain appeal, and context to our portfolio. This new DAC - in order to beat the Horizon - had to have all the criteria removed. In other words: it is too big, too complicated to build, too heavy to even lift, too bulky to ship, too expensive to complete the BOM, too expensive to stock, too expensive to distribute. In one words - almost unsellable. Just as a glimpse at the challenges, the Amber DAC takes us approximately 6 hours to assemble, Baltic, Atlantic and Big7 it is approx 2 days, the Horizon takes a week and the new DAC takes almost a month. And we are talking the most skilled person having all the parts in the stock. Could we have NOT built it ? The answer is no. Being the most fanatical DAC company - the moment we knew there is a new path - like an alpinist would learn about the discovery of a new mountain, higher than Mt. Everest - he doesnt calculate if it "pays off" to find it and summit it - he JUST DOES. Because the mountain is there. Similarily - when we knew there are four major sound upgrades available to improve over the Horizon, just requiring huge effort and investment - we JUST DID.
Back to the Horizon question: if you own the Horizon and enjoy using its fabulous volume control - the APHRODITE DAC is not for you. The first and most important difference is lack of volume control hence there is agan a need for a top class preamplifier. The new DAC is FIXED VOLUME. This is the FIRST MAJOR IMPROVEMENT OF SOUND - riddance of volume control. And this is valid even if one uses the Horizon with a bypass function at 63 level. With volume control - the Horizon360 remains still our top product. The second improvement of sound is using more exotic, hard to find, usually custom ordered and designed parts. The Aphrodite DAC shares with Horizon only the footers and a handful of electronic parts. Basically the digital engine is the same as Horizon360 - it is only slightly improved around the clocking circuit, we believe that engine is state of the art and hard to beat. But even the footers are only the base for our new aftermarket footers so this point becomes irrelevant. The bill of materials overall is approx. 4 x more expensive than that of the Horizon. The third major push towards ultimate sound quality was the new tube scheme - because in the Horizon1 we needed approx 30x amplification ratio, and in Horizon360 we had to reduce that to circa 10x and we had to use resistive L-pad reducers (attenuators). In the Aphrodite DAC we designed everything for the desired amplification of 4x and no attenuators were needed - so the resulting sound in comparison is fast, open and pure. The new tube scheme is now designed for this DAC and this dac alone and I am sure nobody ever before used such tube scheme in a hi-fi product. The fourth major sound quality jump is coming from the fact of using new femto-clocks that werent simply available to us 4 years ago. The H360 digital engine was used as a base - and with Femto Clocking it was adopted to the specs of the NEW DAC. When we sum up the four major performance jumps and add the minor jumps like fitting the Kraftwerk power cleaners, better footers with magnetic levitation, better capacitors, better software and better input handling - all together gave us the magnificent sound of the NEW DAC. Listening tests alone - confirming our choices and design ideas - took approximately 1000 listening hours in the new factory listening test studio. When making the Horizon 4 years ago we didnt even have such studio available. And lastly: the new DAC is a SHE !
These are the 20 key design points of Lampizator Aphrodite: Digital engine derived from Horizon360 project - 1. redesigned hardware with a much enhanced functionality and a new stage of Femto Clock of space age parameters. 2. Tube section newly designed for this digital engine with fixed level of analog output (new tube section). 3. Huge colourful LCD display with tons of user information and user interaction. 4. New dual-mono power supply taken from our monoblock amplifier program - with two rectifier tubes - one per channel 5. Four of much bigger, vintage style EI transformers, custom designed and hand made for us, almost 3x more powerful than in the Horizon and hence - no toroids at all. 6. Multiple point temperature control inside the DAC with visible display with the microprocessor controlled warnings and eventually an automated shutdown. 7. Microprocessor controlled supply current with the display message and warnings and eventually a shutdown in case of a dangerously high power draw. 8. DAC’s total life hours counter (good for second hand valuation as well as service requirements) 9. Tube hours clock - good for scheduling of re-tubing, user adjustable. 10. Multiple digital filter profiles - user selectable on the fly via the remote 11. Multiple digital modulator profiles - user selectable via the remote 12. Phase - user selectable on the fly via the remote 13. Digital stream parameters displayed in real time (clock, bit depth, bit rate, data type) 14. New screen dimming function and user selectable display profiles to match the actual needs of the user and his system 15. Huge letters and digits legible across the biggest rooms 16. Eight user profiles to save/retrieve in one button press with all parameters bundled together - selectable on the fly via the remote 17. Tube rolling possibility, with extra protection of temperature and current. (all octal pentodes and tetrodes from our approved and tested list are possible) 18. Built in TAIKO XDMI interface as well as all known digital inputs including a “Total Compatibility” i2S format input and also a LAN endpoint with RJ45 and Roon (or Logitech) compatibility. Basically the DAC runs on a CAT7 cable from the Roon core server. 19. Low output impedance that will drive all and any preamps and amps. Extended warranty is user selectable - for your peace of mind.
Aphrodite design This DAC is like no other, mainly due to the fact it is using pentodes as DAC output converters to voltage and power pentodes as triode loads. The power pentodes seem to be much too large and much too expensive to be used as “small signal” tubes. Thats why the decision to use them is so beautifully radical and extreme, worthy of high end status. Big power pentodes like EL34, KT66, KT88, KT120, 150 and 170 are ridiculously over-specified for the job in this circuit but thats the key to this big, bold, effortless sound that no one else can match, they offer in return a sound signature that is simply craved by high end audiophiles and music aficionados around the world. The sound becomes effortless, powerful but delicate, smooth but detailed, well controlled but musical, three-dimensional and gorgeous at the same time. This is partly due to the fact that the radiation and absorption areas of these triodes are tens of times larger than those found in small tubes, making electron density much smaller and the flow is much easier. This for some reason sounds better. The heaters of our DAC are DC type, precisely controlled and safely limited in both voltage and current. Our heater circuits provide good protection for long life of these tubes. They are also over-specified enough to handle all but most radical tubes out there. Generally 2A of tube heater is an advisable upper limit - please check the specs of the given tube. All power tetrodes from KT66-88-90-120-150 range fall under 2A of heating at 6,3V DC. The Anode High Voltage is supplied with our proprietary tube power supply, consisting of a very high grade EI transformer, Dual Diode directly heated rectifier, a choke and capacitor filter and passive filtration and energy storage stages. All this is monophonic - PER CHANNEL. Balanced Operation is possible because we employ a fully balanced digital engine that produces 4 analog outputs simultaneously: Left Negative, Left Positive, Right Positive and Right Negative. All four outputs are treated equally, with individual filtering, signal shaping, and amplification by one tube each. Thats why we have 4 tubes per DAC and additional 4 big pentodes for Active Anode Loading. Tetrode, pentode and rectifier swapping (rolling) is described elsewhere in the manual. The KEY DIFFERENCES VERSUS THE HORIZON ARE: Lack of volume control Added user access to all vital internal parameter setup via remote Gigantic and informative dual OLED display One stage of amplification versus 2 One series capacitor versus two in Horizon EI transformers user throughout instead of toroids dual mono construction - everything except the mains fuse LAN Ethernet input with endpoint bridge module Three wire i2S available (without need for masterclock!) Femto clock inside that is 10 x more precise than before Full protection from user or self damage Advanced mains filtering directly copied from Kraftwerk unit Full support for three most advanced inputs : XDMI/Taiko, HDMI i2S and 3xBNC/i2S Resistorless tube stage based on active loading, triode mode SET amplification and Shottky diode tube biasing reference point. Biasing of tube is automatic and the user doesn’t need to worry. Temperature control in vital positions Tube life clock counter and many many more
A short interview with the first tester listener: Greg - Gpoint
PRICING from Oct. 01 2025
This is an INTRODUCTORY PRICE that may change with the second batch after 20 units is sold, further information is to follow in 2026 price list.
MSRP price is: 108'240,00 Euro (end user list) (VAT 23% from Poland applied, local VAT may vary)
EXPORT NETTO PRICE: 88 000 Euro or 102960 US$
Local VAT applies , duties, tariffs and sales taxes apply
Trade in for your Horizon 1 DAC is 40 000 Euro
Horizon 1 with Taiko upgrade: 45 000 Euro
Horizon1 DAC upgraded to 360 level: 50 000 Euro
Horizon 360 trade-in value 55 000 Euro netto
We accept email reservations
Actual sales begin in December 2025
Payments are due just before dispatch, no earlier. Dealers may secure the reservation with a deposit
10 Trade-ins will be accepted only per each batch of 20 we produce.
ATTENTION: On October 8th we sold out all Aphrodites on pre-orders. Please make your reservations for the January production batch.
A short interview with the second "first tester" listener: Jack - from USA
