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Review and Measurements of Lyngdorf RoomPerfect EQ

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It measured according to specs declared by manufacturer. At the time this device was designed these specs were considered not only absolutely adequate but top class. These specs remain adequate today, but today you can get cheaper device with better specs. That is called progress and it happens with every piece of technology around us, not only with HiFi equipment. So let's not make big fuss about such obvious stuff.

The problem is that it was released in 2018. That's on them for not updating/improving the old technology.
 

Sander_web

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in regards to the Lyngdorf not performing well as a DAC, it should be tested in a way in which most users are going to use the product, who cares what the manufacturer calls it. I submitted the Linn for review which does a whole lot more than a stand alone DAC including their version of room correction, digital streaming etc. You could argue it didn't perform high enough to justify the price if you only look at the DAC performance. The results are the results If you can't handle the objective criticism of your favorite product, go read the absolute sound where everything they review is amazing.

Exactly my point. No one is going to use this product as a stand-alone DAC. May be the 'stay all digital until speaker output' philosophy of Lyngdorf is confusing a lot of people, including @amirm.

I expect a serious reviewer to first delve into what the product subject to testing is designed for. Then he would have known that TDAI-3400 was designed to be an integrated power amplifier, powerful enough to drive even difficult to drive speakers and that the two sets of analogue outputs are only there to add one or two active subwoofers, because according to Lyngdorf their RoomPerfect digital room correction works best with so called 'boundary placed' subwoofers. For this setup it has extended digital cross-over functions build in. If you read the manual of the amplifier this information drips from it in spades.

So testing it as an amplifier over its speaker outputs: yes, testing its digital and analogue inputs: yes, testing jitter levels (digital in - digital out, NOT analogue out): yes and why not: yes also test the analogue outputs but with a side note that these are there for the reasons described above would be in line with the design. Now it's like reviewing a sports car on its ability to carry luggage for the summer holiday.

I am certainly not in the camp of the manufacturer. In evaluating and comparing the unit in my setup I also found flaws I am not happy with. Why build in wifi en bluetooth in the first place? Two well known noise injectors that I found do actually degrade the sound when enabled. Why build in a headphone amplifier that is of lesser quality than even most headphone outputs on smartphones? I think they went too far in designing an all-in-one.

BUT, if you compare the TDAI-3400 with a good stand-alone DAC/amplifier combination on the same digital input signal and driving the same speakers (without the room correction engaged) I dare to say it even performs above its price point. It cannot compete with my Chord DAVE but you have to pay above 2-3K for a DAC alone to outperform the Lyngdorf.
 

Samoyed

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Really....
3FFFC914-8234-4B95-8C98-42463017654E.jpeg
 

Samoyed

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Your certainty is obvious but inherently incredible, improbable and unreasonable. Oink.
 

onion

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I have this amplifier. I love pigs and bacon too - that is one sexy chica Samoyed.

The amp performs significantly better with an external dac, at least subjectively to my ears. Maybe I would have been better off getting the 2170.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the performance in my setup which will include the DAC, an AV receiver and the Lyngdorf driving the lt and rt speakers and sub for movies (in 'home theatre mode') and music along with the RoomPerfect EQ. The cinema room isn't complete yet so I'm just using the setup for music at the moment - the quality is stellar.
 

Sander_web

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I have this amplifier. I love pigs and bacon too - that is one sexy chica Samoyed.

The amp performs significantly better with an external dac, at least subjectively to my ears.

This is my experience as well, but only with certain higher-end DAC's. Which DAC do you use?
 

onion

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I have the denafrips terminator dac - only had it a couple of days. Very very good
 

JaySlice

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I have the denafrips terminator dac - only had it a couple of days. Very very good
Howdy to the group and in particular Sander_Web and Onion. I am a fellow TDAI 3400 owner and I initially debated using a digital only room correction unit in conjunction with a high-end dac and amp, but decided the TDAI-3400 added simplicity, and from what I have read/researched the sound was said to be fantastic. I have been a chord/benchmark dac person and was wondering how obvious the sonic differences are when using an external dac fed into the 3400? and if you use room perfect or use the pass-thru as much as possible? Thanks
 

onion

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I don't know how the Chord and Benchmark dacs sound. I bought the 3400 before knowing much about DACs. I bought it for the convenience of a simple setup. And honestly, until connecting the Terminator, I thought it was excellent. The Terminator allows one to turn the volume up without being fatigued, reveals more, and seems to make music more coherent. Classical music with choirs and orchestras sounds so much better. It also exposes deficiencies in recordings more clearly (like quite a few tracks I listen to from the 1990s have v poor dynamic range).

I think the Terminator is very obviously superior to the DAC built into the 3400. One of the builders doing my cinema room is a bit of an audiophile - I may carry out some blind testing on him and vice versa tomorrow. I'm using RoomPerfect with the Terminator, and the sound is better with this on than in bypass mode. But the setup at the moment is makeshift with in-wall lt and rt speakers sitting on a unit. I think RoomPerfect will make a bigger difference once the system is properly set up in the cinema room.
 

Sander_web

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Howdy to the group and in particular Sander_Web and Onion. I am a fellow TDAI 3400 owner and I initially debated using a digital only room correction unit in conjunction with a high-end dac and amp, but decided the TDAI-3400 added simplicity, and from what I have read/researched the sound was said to be fantastic. I have been a chord/benchmark dac person and was wondering how obvious the sonic differences are when using an external dac fed into the 3400? and if you use room perfect or use the pass-thru as much as possible? Thanks

My personal experience is that the Metrum Adagio, the Metrum Pavane (level 3), the Aqua La Scala mkII, the Chord HUGO TT2 and the Chord DAVE (which I own) bettered the TDAI-3400 fed directly with the same digital signal. All in their own way and some more than others. My take with the Chord DAC's is that they perform so good because of their reconstruction filters, developed by Rob Watts. And they are very low on jitter and have a very good analogue output stage. The other DAC's I mentioned are all R2R implementations.

Apparently the optional ADC module in the Lyngdorf is of high quality as well. I prefer single ended but may be this is because balanced out from the Chord DAVE is +6dB and therefore a little too hot for the TDAI and I prefer to not DSP this down.

So I use the 3400 as amplifier, cross-over and for digital room correction. I prefer RoomPerfect over Dirac and Trinnov. Did not experiment with other DRC systems.
 
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JaySlice

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My personal experience is that the Metrum Adagio, the Metrum Pavane (level 3), the Aqua La Scala mkII, the Chord HUGO TT2 and the Chord DAVE (which I own) bettered the TDAI-3400 fed directly with the same digital signal. All in their own way and some more than others. My take with the Chord DAC's is that they perform so good because of their reconstruction filters, developed by Rob Watts. And they are very low on jitter and have a very good analogue output stage. The other DAC's I mentioned are all R2R implementations.

Apparently the optional ADC module in the Lyngdorf is of high quality as well. I prefer single ended but may be this is because balanced out from the Chord DAVE is +6dB and therefore a little too hot for the TDAI and I prefer to not DSP this down.

So I use the 3400 as amplifier, cross-over and for digital room correction. I prefer RoomPerfect over Dirac and Trinnov. Did not experiment with other DRC systems.
So If I had my digital signal fed into the Chord Dac, then into the "high-quality" ADC module, I would gain the sonic benefits of the Chord but can take advantage of the 3400 Roon features, etc.?
 
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