Ayon S5 VS Aurender W20

I'm interested in this too.

In 2012 I sold my Meridian 800DAXV4 (25000 dollar new) and I
was looking for a new network player. It took 1,5 years before
I bought my first streamer.

But......it was not that easy and good as I thought it would
be. The Aurender was by far the biggest dissapointment. I
auditioned it for about 6 times. With different dac's. All
tests had the same outcome. When you compare it to a good
highend cd player you miss the full pallet of colours in the
mid freq. Even for free I don't want this sound.

In a battle at my house between the Aurender S10 and Olive
06HD it was clear that the Olive was superior. Better
dynamics, more resolution, a much sharper individual focus of
instruments and voices, better blacks, deeper and wider stage
and this has the pallet of colours in the mid freq. like the
better highend cd players.

This year I will test the Lumin streamers. When it does what
is promissed I will become Lumin dealer.

In all my tests with computers and drives with a separate dac
I noticed the limitation in the mid freq. as I just told. This
is unexeptable in my personal opinion.

In my perspective when a networkplayer has a dac inside it is
a lot more musical. This is the pallet of colours in the mid
freq, where I was talking about.

The Lumin S1 is not quite as warm as the less expensive A1 if your taste goes towards more warmth, the Lumin is amazing.

It also depends on how you were demoing the Lumin NAS or direct connection, the Lumin sounds amazing over a network connection and not as good as a direct connection via USB.

The Lumin sounds amazing, we had a customer trade in a #18k DCS Puccini in on the Lumin which outperformed the DCS.

If you want the sound of tubes an amazing tube based dac the Aqua Hifi La Scala driven by an Auralic Aeries would be a world beating combination and cost considerably less then the Ayon.