Lumin D1, has anyone heard it?

worldwidewholesales29 posts05-01-2016 3:37pm

We have tested over 60 different digital front ends from $50K and down. Three manufactures stood out for sounding toe tapping musical and not sounding digital. Total dac with the Total dac server and a very expensive AES cable in-between the 2 pieces to get them to communicate with each other. Total dac was very nice but cost after shipping, exchange and duty is $17000 for one of the less expensive Total Dac and server set ups.

I own an audio distribution company in Canada and occasionally people come over to hear my set up. I personally now run a Lumin A1 and a D1 server with their built in dacs. I set up the A1 for people at the $6000-$7000 range and the D1 for people under $3000.00. First of all I want to say that after 6 months of use, the Lumin product has worked flawless. I even accidentally unplugged my power on the server and it was back up and playing in less than one minute later. The Lumin app is spectacular, no tech support needed. The Lumin in my opinion, is the most simple server to set up that I have experienced.

How about S1?   Extra cost over A1 justify?

Have you compare L1 to generic NAS?

Hi,

To be honest I have not had a S1 in for evaluation. The main reason is that the 9018 chip has not been my fav over the past few years due to the hyper detail. My understanding is that Lumin has really done some stunning things with the 9018 but for me the A1 is already world class. Total dac is no joke and until Lumin, Total dac was playing at another level compared to everything we had tried. When I first heard Total dac I thought it would take manufactures a couple of years to catch up but Lumin is already there.

I did have another NAS but the L1 with the Lumin app is a no brainer. Sound wise it is as good as I have heard. Again everything is subjective and system dependent so I refuse to say anything is the best but it is the best I have heard in my system. I just plug my hard drive and DSD stick directly into both my Lumins. I did have the NAS but my buddy begged me for it so I need to buy another Lumin L1.

I might also try a S1 next month.

Cheers,

WorldwideWholesales is spot on with his evaluation. And I don't know him from Jack. I am just here reading treads and came across this. I had a Lumin D1, and upgraded to the A1 within a few months, sold my SACD player, ripped all my CDs and SACDs to a Synology NAS (one of the options recommended by Lumin), and haven't looked back. It really is that good and a game changer as far as I'm concerned.  And I am not biased for digital, I still spin two TT and own a boat load of vinyl. 

The really nice things about this server is it's not fussy, clean in design and to look at, sounds great (it doesn't even sound like it's digital), and you have a universe of music options (internet radio is free, TIDAL DSD, and you own music library (my CDs are boxed up in storage). BTW, my CDs sound better than they ever have ripped to my NAS and streamed to my LUMIN via a CAT 6 cable. 

I use  Wireworld hi-quality balance cables, a hi-quality after market power cable and Stillpoints for isolation. 

WWW...what CPT pc do you use on your Lumin..?..

which input of Lumin provides better sound quality - Ethernet or USB?

I have a Lumin D1 for a month and is very happy with its performance. It plays flawlessly, and in many ways better than my $4000 tube CD player.  It has pin point imaging with great width and depth. Sounds very analog to me.  Noted that I also replaced the factory supplied switching PSU to HDPLEX Linear PSU. 

I recently installed a NAS drive (Synology DS-216+ with 4TB Seagate drive) and minimserver for streaming.  To compare the  sound quality between Ethernet and USB inputs, I ripped a few CD to both NAS drive and USB thumb drive. After spending an evening of critical listening of the two inputs with the same test tracks, I think the USB input sounds more dynamic and has better imaging.  Not a big difference but noticeable.  My NAS set up is only a week old, and perhaps it needs more time to burn in? 

I would appreciate if you can share your Lumin experience about NAS drive Ethernet streaming vs USB thumb drive.