While I had more than one chance to upgrade my Pacific to its 2nd or 3rd version, I saw no point so never did. In my system with sundry efficacious accessories and tubes to my liking, it performed too well to bother. No DAC sent to me since 2018 posed any real threat. That LampizatOr was bulletproof. I also knew that at a performance level this high, any alternative capable of providing a noticeable quality hike would be a very tall financial order. The list of those to even entertain the mere possibility was actually a blank page. Then the first Horizon showed up and within hours things turned upside down. If any product could clearly outshine the Pacific, this was it. While that wasn't an issue per se, my diminished new assessment of my daily driver was. The magnitude of audible shift was drastic, the quality gap criminally large. That's the gist. The LampizatOr core voicing as I'd known it up to then put ease, power, cavernous staging, firmness, articulation, wide dynamic contrast, clarity, directness, radiance, textural wetness and vividness above substance, density, warmth and roundness. Lukasz has always been big on dipole and high-eff speakers. Their inherent traits are big, ballsy, quick and dynamically broad. Many of his DACs followed that same tuning. The Pacific sat closest to it as far as I could tell. As exciting and spectacular as that was, the 1st-gen Horizon loaner quickly demoted it to feeling notably hollow, lean, nervy, shallow and narrow, texturally matte, dynamically constrained and a bit polite. The Pacific couldn't hold its position in any regard let alone come out on top. By comparison to the new flagship it essentially sounded like a shadow of itself that wanted to keep up yet clearly struggled. No, it didn't have a bad day. The pentode sibling was simply that much better. So I enjoyed it while I could. Past its departure my audio system had a week off which was necessary to enjoy the Pacific again on its own terms.
While my first rodeo with the Horizon was short, it sufficed to see this DAC as my next obvious acquisition rather than potential prospect. To add salt to injury, even when connected to my Trilogy 915R preamp via RCA just to give the single-ended Pacific a fair chance, the Horizon remained the clearly superior specimen. The use of its balanced output only enlarged the audible gap. With that lay of the land covered, let's move to the comparison of the two Horizon versions. Both saw the same power cords and outlet multiplier. They were both constantly on, had their volume circuits bypassed and ran the same tubes. To make the necessary rotations, I had to manually reconnect one XLR set and USB leash. Since the Horizon360 outputs higher voltage than the original, the volume level on my preamp had to compensate by about 6dB. I wasn't sure whether my bias towards the 1st-gen Horizon got the better of me but right off the bat I liked it more than its successor. Early on it seemed quicker, more articulate and specific on instrumental and vocal images which projected closer to my seat thus were larger. In that sense the original Horizon felt spicier so very much in line with LampizatOr's usual house sound. At that time I thought of it as a Pacific on ungodly steroids. Meanwhile the Horizon360 felt less flashy and mechanical, more tangible, grounded and collected, fuller and a touch darker. As such it didn't reveal all its aces right away. Rather, it grew on me gradually one song at a time. The original Horizon emphasized copious freshness and excitement to feel very familiar. My early focus was mainly on all the speedy traits it flaunted. Once I fully accommodated to the newer sibling's profile, the same kind of intensity and zesty aroma registered plus much more. Atop exceptional dynamic potency, off-the-charts imaging and ease, the Horizon360 dug plainly deeper, hit harder, packed extra heft and textural fruitiness into image outlines, sounded gutsier and eventually emerged as the higher-tiered more mature model. But that wasn't the end of it.
Just to clarify, the 1st-gen Horizon was very listenable. In comparison to the evolved sibling, it simply sounded frostier, leaner, shinier and more incisive. It also packed the closest images in thinner frames. This resulted in a gestalt aimed mainly at an audience in pursuit of ultimate speed, directness, articulation, openness and the here and now sensation. The Horizon360 went about its business without clear bias. The longer it was on the job, the more competent and polished it proved on all fronts. On agile radiant tracks it easily matched the first Horizon's speed, snap, clarity, enunciation, detail retrieval, background blackness and electrified demeanor. Then it added greater tonal mass, wider dynamics, deeper bass, more energy and greater overall impact. While on sensual calm acoustic fare with a single vocal line it was just as smooth, intimate and delicate, it upped the ante on juiciness, expressiveness, suchness, seductiveness and colour. On spatially complex music it was more organic, moving and vivid and noticeably more gifted about making visible the farther layers. This long list of achievements was fit for a very costly flagship indeed.
Unsurprisingly, the Horizon360 brilliantly handled the most dynamically challenging music I threw at it. That sentence doesn't quite encapsulate how accomplished it was there. The level of elasticity, control, composure, crack, feistiness, fullness and aural freedom during very loud playback was prohibitively high. Most importantly, the latest LampizatOr was beyond effortless in its delivery as though this rare skill was just another obvious item on its broad menu and nothing special to gush over. Elegantly casual atop being wickedly powerful and of enormous scale is the best I can say about that. Neither have I ever experienced anything like this in a DAC nor encountered one that sounded this intense, gravitational, spatially liberated, meticulous, resolute and complete all at once. Let me put it this way. If the 1st-gen Horizon were a speaker, I'd see it as a purist widebander inside a large folded rear horn on a mindfully curated stereo system. The successor would be topologically the same but on a far better amp and intelligently crossed over to a Ripol sub. While both would fare similarly, the latter would do noticeably more and much easier at that. That's the takeaway. Let's wrap.
Without proper context, LampizatOr's Horizon360 may seem absurdly dear. If you see it such, I couldn't blame you. This clearly is a proposition for shoppers accustomed to extreme expenses who are familiar with the brand. Then again, we live in times where €200K DACs are a thing. I don't know how today's subject compares to any of them but that doesn't diminish its elevated status for what it does and represents. Superbly voiced and visually brilliant, in my room it behaved and felt like a top-tier affair primed to compete with anything no matter how costly. Lastly, while it surpassed the original Horizon by a fair margin, it's also accurate that it casually mopped the floor with the Pacific and left a bloody crime scene behind. For this long-time LampizatOr user, this essentially meant two things. One, the company's Horizon360 offers very real progress that fully deserves our award. Two, this status quo fully justifies my decision to finance this monster. Saving paid off so now it is mine. Happy days.
