Better to buy a high end network player with a DAC?

 but you lose independence that a separate dac allows.

Almost every network music player I am aware of (Linn, Naim, SimAudio, etc.) offer the option of an SPDIF output if you really want to use a separate DAC.

Ironlung,

very helpful comments, so it seems a dac inside a player is appropriate in light of all the stuff that goes on inside box that most have no clue about...

Neg comments about Lumin see abit unfair.

Neg comments about Lumin see abit unfair.

You'll have to forgive me, as I was there in the beginning and saw exactly what Lumin did, which is essentially copy-cat Linn (in nearly every respect they could at the time). It's surprising to me that they have gained the popularity they have within the audio community to the point that a typical conversation about network streamers on any number of threads on this forum are filled with references to Lumin, and yet no mentions of the folks who so obviously inspired everything that Lumin did at the time.

And possibly by now Lumin can be very competitive with Linn.

should i feel comfortable buying Lumin?  Is it really a Linn product?