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Lumin X1 latest Review like we have been saying



For many years we have been touting the Lumin products as being one of the best sounding and best implimented paths to creating a fantastic sound in your system.

We sought to be a Lumin dealer after the A1 came out and pretty much got rave reviews as being the best sounding streamer out there, each successive product was better the new T2 is amazing at its price point and challenges $7k streamer/dacs/

The lastest review https://hometheaterreview.com/lumin-x1-network-player-reviewed/

sums up Lumins history and even offers a comparison of the X1 vs the Total Dac, and DCS and the Aqua Formula, we actually have tested the upgraded Formula V2 with the Statement and it does sound even bettter.
 
Summation the best sound the reviewer ever accheived was with the X1.

We sell some of the worlds best dacs, including T+A, Light Harmonic, Aqua Hif, Naim, Mytek, Bricasti, and with the X1 you have to spend $30-50k to better the X1, it is nice to see that other people are agreeing with exactly what we have been saying all along.

If you are looking for the best sound for the money, rock solid reliability, a fantastic feature set, Tidal, Qbouz, Spotify, Apple Airplay to play Youtube or Soundcloud, OTA upgrades, Roon endpoint, full Mqua, DSD and High data rate upsampling, upconversion and playability, solid build quality, built in volume control, the Lumin products are hard to beat.



Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin dealers
128x128audiotroy
tom8999
151 posts
 
Dave and Troy - thanks for the info on the new upgraded LUMIN product line. I have been streaming via my LUMIM D1 for 5 years, and I am very happy with the sound quality and the LUMIN app to run the system via my I pad mini. Great sound and support from LUMIN as I get multiple software updates over the last 5 years for free. I now stream via Tidal HiFi with MQA available. This was a great step change in sound quality for me. I am considering an up grade to the T2. Is the Sabre DAC that much better than my wolfson DAC in the D1? I am sold on a streamer and DAC in one box - the simpler the better for me. Is there a market for a 5 year old LUMIN D1 - it has run flawlessly and still works great . Any feedback would be great.
mgrif104
328 posts
 
Dave and Troy: I’m curious if you can help me with a theory.  My suspicion is that the streaming/server function is at least as important as the DAC.  This can be tested by taking the digital out from the Lumin X1 into a separate DAC and comparing to the X1’s analog out.  Is this a comparison you’ve done?  I’m sure both functions w/in the X1 are terrific, but I wonder if the streamer or DAC is the greater contributor to the overall success of the unit.  

Thoughts?
Best,
mgrif
rossb
183 posts
 
Tom 8999, yes the Sabre dac is much better than the Wolfson DAC in the D1. I’ve owned the A1 and D1 as well as a few other Wolfson dacs from EAR, Exposure and others. I also have had a number of dacs using the current Sabre chips - the X1, Mytek Manhattan II, Ayre QX5 and Exasound e32. The latest generation of Sabre dac chips really are superb and a significant advance on their previous generation, and a very big jump from the Wolfson chip.

mgrif104, I have done the comparison you are referring to. I have the X1 as well as the U1 Mini, and have run both into my Mytek Manhattan II. I always thought that the U1 Mini was a superb streamer (which it is), but the X1 as a streamer is significantly better again - greater clarity, deeper tonal colours and less "hash". However, even when using the X1 as a streamer, the Mytek is a noticeable step down from the Lumin dac. The streaming section of the X1 will not suddenly turn a lesser dac into an X1 equivalent.
grahamsphillips's avatar
grahamsphillips
13 posts
 
Has anyone auditioned the Lumin amp? Having bought a Lumin T2 I'm fully in agreement its stunning... so now to upgrade my amp..
nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
489 posts
 
@grahamsphillips we have the Lumin AMP here, normally paired with the Lumin X1 but of course it can accept any line-level source. If you like the Lumin sound, particularly the ESS-based units with output transformers, then I would expect you to like the sound of the AMP as well.

@mgrif104 I'm not aware of a similar ES9038PRO + Lundahl LL7401 DAC implementation, against which you could perform a comparison. Even then that's just two primary components of an overall design. But you could probably test your theory in the other direction, but picking some other DAC as your constant and using multiple network streamers to feed it.
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