Country of Origin
This review first appeared in July 2025 on HifiKnights.com. By request of the manufacturer and permission of the author, it is hereby syndicated to reach a broader audience. All images contained in this piece are the property of HifiKnights – Ed.
Reviewer: Dawid Grzyb
Transport: Innuos Statement, fidata HFAS1-S10U
DAC: LampizatOr Horizon360 w. Stradi 5U4G + Psvane Art TIII 4x KT88 / 2x 6SN7
USB components: iFi audio Mercury3.0
Network: Fidelizer EtherStream, Linksys WRT160N
Preamplifier: Trilogy 915R, Thöress DFP
Amplifier: Trilogy 995R, FirstWatt F7, Enleum AMP-23R
Speakers: Boenicke Audio W11 SE+, sound|kaos Vox 3afw
Headphones: HifiMan Susvara
Interconnects: LessLoss Entropic Process C-MARC, Boenicke Audio IC3 CG
Speaker cables: Boenicke Audio S3, LessLoss C-MARC
Speaker signal conditioning: LessLoss Firewall for Loudspeakers, Boenicke ComDev
Anti-vibration conditioning: 12x Carbide Audio Carbide Base under DAC, preamp and speakers
Power delivery: Gigawatt PC-3 SE EVO+/LC-3 EVO, LessLoss C-MARC, LessLoss Entropic Process C-MARC, Boenicke Audio Power Gate, ISOL-8 Prometheus
Equipment rack: Franc Audio Accessories Wood Block Rack 1+3
Review component retail: €16K and €19K respectively
One bottle, two genies. LampizatOr's Horizon DAC marked a significant albeit short-lived milestone in the company's history. The Horizon360 replaced it but the original digital engine was far too precious to discard. So a very special DAC named LampizatOr Genya built around this suddenly homeless circuit. While no strict rule, audio manufacturers usually keep flagships stable for 3-5 years to not displace their clients. LampizatOr founder Lukasz Fikus followed this unwritten rule for many years; with one exception. His 1st-gen Horizon DAC originated as a side project during Covid. From one iteration to another, it eventually outperformed his previous best aka Pacific by a significant margin to finally usurp the throne. Infused with a brand-new H99 digital circuit combined with pentode not DHT outputs, the Horizon was unlike anything Lukasz and team had done before. An undisclosed D/A chip with some interesting capabilities played enabler and LampizatOr's CEO was an extremely pleased early adopter. Then this critical part discontinued unexpectedly and Horizon's lifespan crashed after just a year.
The resulting void had to be filled and team LampizatOr revisited the drawing board. The result of these efforts was the Horizon360 with a redesigned PSU and digital engine that now incorporates a two-part alternative to the previously monolithic suddenly unobtainium chip. The brand is known for their generous upgrade policy so 1st-gen Horizon owners could elevate to 360 status at 15% of MSRP. An audience for hardware this costly pursues the very best so over the course of a few months Lukasz and staff received several dozen Horizon for rework. The key step of the surgery replaces the entire H99 digital stage with the new counterpart. The salvaged previous-gen boards piling up were in rude health. Considering the time, money and effort invested in them, binning them wasn't reasonable so Lukasz dreamt up the limited-edition Genya. From his site we learn that during his 1995 visit to Ukraine's city of Lviv, Lukasz met local tube guru Evgennyi Kreminski who passed away in 2013 due to cancer. He specialized in push-pull designs based on 6C33C ‘devil' triodes and authored hundreds of schematics for them over the years. Lukasz saw Evgennyi as a friend and mentor who taught him everything he knows on tubes. Today's Genya DAC commemorates the Ukrainian sifu and his last tube stage that hasn't yet been used in any previous LampizatOr design. The number of H99 boards extracted from 1st-gen Horizons including service spares effectively limits this run to 40 units. Should you wonder about its name, it's the diminutive of Evgennyi. 'Genial' as the Germans would say. The English 'ingenious' is already a bit removed.
The digital engine of Genya primes it as the brand's affordable take on their Horizon. Lukasz confirmed this as top priority but some compromises had to be made to achieve it. First and foremost, Genya is a purist single-purpose DAC without volume, display, Nixies, remote control or exposed tubes. It measures 44 x 55 x 17cm and parks 25kg on the scale. As such it needs similar rack space like the Pacific or Horizon but lifts and moves around easier. On external appeal it scores as high as a big black plain box can. That's by design. It's no secret that an enclosure often eats up the majority of the total manufacturing budget. Genya's yeoman dress of powder-coated steel plates allowed its designer to funnel most resources into the guts where they make the largest difference. I can tell you as early as now that this netted awesome results. But first, when the device powers up, the front window shows the logo and currently selected input. The push button just below doubles as secondary on/off and input selector. Genya runs very cool so the hexagonal perforations on its cheeks and hood mainly lift aesthetic interest. The backside is busy with a ground post, fused IEC with mains rocker, RCA and XLR outputs (3/6V respectively) and four digital inputs so coax S/PDIF, USB, AES/EBU and Toslink. The underside on aluminium pucks with rubber washers seals the deal.
Taking a peek under my Horizon360's bonnet took a while. Not so with Genya. Just undo several bolts on the cover, pop it off and presto. A JL Sounds asynchronous USB receiver with the H99 module below it make up the digital stage powered by a dedicated large toroid from local company Toroidy.pl. Their smaller transformer feeds only tubes. The CLC-filtered EI choke by Leszek Ogonowski provides the anode voltage for the 6X5 full-wave tube rectifier selected for its indirect modest 0.6A heating needs and low-noise operation. The H99 engine outputs balanced signal to the analog stage built upon a quad of SRPP (series regulated push-pull) mono amps with one 6N6P dual-triode input buffer in each. In this topology one tube acts as common-cathode amplifier, the other as series-connected cathode follower. High voltage gain and low output Ω are useful benefits. Evgennyi used SRPP circuits wherever he could but today's DAC is the only LampizatOr that incorporates it. Lastly, beefy output coupling caps are niche copper-foil polypropylene types. The Genya Lite version sells for €16'000 and later this year we'll see two more siblings. The fancier Genya Plus priced at €19'000 will feature cherry-picked ECC182 tubes and gold-plated PCB while the €12'000 Genya R2R will rock a digital stage with vintage AD1862 chip.
