Yes Fdpdk yes our point exactly.
We have been working with Lumin for years and we have never seen a product that is as loved once people get one in their systems.
Musical, great feature set, reasonable cost, many available price points. easy to use app, Roon and Mqa, and in most cases they are usually considered the best sounding products in their price points.
We sell a lot of digital products and the Lumin gear always stands out.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin dealers |
Uberwaltz the OP is talking about the direct stream digital not the Junior as there are no Juniors available which means the Direct Stream Digital with Bridge card is $6,995.00 is it not?
$6k or $7k is not $4.5k now is it?
Most of the $3k streamers will not compete with the more expensive gear, the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge Plus is very nice at $3k but it does not sound as good as the Lumin and PS units.
Also look at the statement from the OP where he says he wants to audition one which would probably mean the the T2 would be in his price range.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin and Mytek dealers
|
Jburidan, we also sell the Aqua, we have a Formula and a Lascala Mk II on display and we are not going to say they don't sound good.
We would also ask you have you heard a Lumin T2 or an X1.
The X1 is an extraordinary digital product one of the best sounding front ends we have ever heard, it is magical and it also uses a Sabre dac.
Their are many great dac chips from AKM, Sabre and Burr Brown including the 1796 and the 1792 chips what really matters is not the chip but how you impliment your design. R2R dac chips and the best multi bit chips are sounding more and more alike these days.
However, again, you are basing your love of the Aqua on just the chip the Aqua analog stage is superb.
This discussion is about Streamers both the PS audio and the Lumin are streamers the Aqua Hifi is not a streamer so you can't really bring up one in the same conversation also the new La Voice MK III is $4,750 add in a good server and you are in the $7k or so catagory so not a valid comparison unless you are talking one $7k package vs another.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ |
Jes wasnt the Op looking for an alternative in a similar price point that is available?
As per sound quality a T2 is more than a match for the Direct Stream digital |
Yes Uberwaltz those are all valid points, in terms of value that is only determined by the listener.
We would recommend that the OP listen to a T2 and decide for himself. We are willing to believe he will find the T2 to match the PS and perhaps may even enjoy it more, only the OP will know for himself.
In our store we sell a lot of digital products, from Mytek, Ifi, Naim, Lumin, Innous, Baetis, NAD, Light Harmonic, T+A, Rega, Aqua Hifi,and a few others.
We agree with you on that Lumin will not work for everyone, that is why we don’t sell only Lumin. A person has to consider what their needs are.
If you think about it locking down the system is generally very effective at eliminating any noise entering the piece along with the digital signal, but it does limit you if you want to spin a CD as well as stream.
For many of our clients the world of Tidal and Qbouzz are eliminating the desire to play a CD, howerver, if you have a rare CD or an artist not available via streaming that could be an issue. You can also rip a CD to a computer on your network and play the disc that way, we know that isn’t for everybody.
We are big proponents of the Lumin products because they sound and work wonderfully well and are among the best sounding products in their price range.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ |
Jacked
From the OP
I will try to see if I can audit the T2
Considering the T2 is only a dac/streamer it certainly looks like the OP wants a unit with a built in streamer or it would be doubtful he would have said he would like to take the next step to audition one.
|
Jburden,
You are free to make any claim you like. However saying that you don't like a particular dac chip is an erronous statement.
You are not listening to a dac chip, it is one part of the equation, you have an input board, power supplies, clocking technology andof course the analog output stage, all of these contribute the sound that a dac
produces.
The Lumin T2 uses dual ESS 9028pro dac running in mono which means you have 8 cores per each chip running differential computations this lower noise dramatically and gives you better dynamic range, many companies use only a single dac chip, two sounds and measures better.
One issue that some people have is being forced to listen to DSD on the Direct Stream series, DSD in general has a softer sound than PCM and the Lumin can be set to output everything in DSD as well.
You can also listen to upsampled PCM which generally has a more incisive sound with greater dynamic snap than DSD.
As per analog like their are fans of the Direct Stream and people who don't like it it is a good dac among many good dacs sometimes one person's analog like is another persons rolled off. YMMV.
Uberwaltz, the Lumin is designed to be a streaming dac, it has always been a 100% purposeful device. The engineers directly ommited digital inputs as they felt that it can introduce noise into the product.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin dealers
|
Initm, the Benchmark does not sound like any of these dacs.
Benchmark sound is much crisper and hyper detailed, the PS, the Lumin especially running DSD mode, and the Aqua are all in the liquid more musical camp.
If you want a cheap dac that sounds great and is very liquid but not as good as the above the Ifi DSD pro is really amazing for its price point of $2,500.00
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ |
Martin,
We haven’t been shoving anything down your throat.
We mentioned the Lumin as it is an excellent product that many people are raving about and enjoying for both its sound quality and ease of use as well as its price point.
Ask a dozen audiophiles any question and you are going to get a lot of different results based on their experiences with their systems.
We as a dealer sell many, many brands of dacs and steamers and have tested our products with many different loudspeakers and amplifiers.
For the gentleman with the Persona 5 they tend to be a bit forward so a dac that is very lush is a better choice, his choice of the Aurender was good for his system, also with the Lumin the DSD cross conversion feature makes digital much more rich, we don’t know if he tried this feature some people never play with it, however, we would have pointed him to an Aqua with an Innous which is way richer combo then the Aurender and would add additional warmth that the Personas need,so different systems and tastes require different components.
It is physically impossible for our words to be of any issue to you, we made a suggestion based on our experience with the Lumin vs many of the products which we sell, and have listened to.
If you read our posts we mentioned a whole host of other dacs from the IFI DSD Pro which is mind blowing for its price point, and we did also mention the Aqua Hifi Dacs plus a streamer as also sounding excellent.
In Europe the Aqua Hifi La Voice S3 shoud be less expensive than it is here and if you are indeed looking for a streaming combo then an Innous Mini might give you the more laid back liquid sound that you find with the PS audio piece and in terms of upgradability the Aqua stuff is completely modular an older S2 can be upgraded to an S3 which make the Aqua gear a very good long term investment in the ever changing world of digital and considering you are in Europe you may find that piece to be the best possible solution not to mention the Aqua gear has a very lush full bodied presentation similar to a DSD based dac like the PS.
If you wan to get more out of your post you should quantitfy exaclty what you are looking for:
1: Dac or Streamer
2: Price point
3: What the rest of your system is
4: Do you want a current product or an older perhaps discontinued model which might also work and in that case the older Aqua Hifi La Voice S2 might be right up your alley.
5: What you liked about the PS
(were there any areas that you would have wished that could be better in the comparison vs the Chord Dac you prefered the tonatlity of the PS, but did the Chord have any qualities that you liked over the PS.)
Based on the limited data we see your preference is towards a more rolled off and liquid digital sound, therefore a dac like the Benchmark, Sim Audio, or Chord or any dac that sounds neutral to a bit brighter would not float your boat.
Based on the above still don’t know any of the question 1-4 we would recommend:
1: Aqua Hifi La Voice
2: Ifi DSD pro cheap and amazing
3: Any R2R NOS dacs avalilable in Europe
Good luck on your search and give the Aqua a demo that shoud be right up your alley.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
|
Jab Audiogon is used by many people for some it is not price but gaining knowledge from others who have different exp.
Sometimes new products will outperform older used ones even sometimes way more expensive ones.
Based on this thread and the Op being in Europe and liking a very rich sound then Aqua or Border Patrol dacs plus a good streamer or a used PS audio Dac or other nos dac would be our recomendendation.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ |
Martin, we are not yet selling the Rockans one of our clients in a different state got one and was blown away with the sound quality this gentleman demoed a lot of dacs and came away with stateing that the Rockna was just exceptional in both its musicality and build quality.
Considering that you are in Europe and so is Rocknawe would agree with World Wide that you really should check out their products.
The main designer of Rockna is considered a digital engineering genius and we have been following Rockna’s progress for years.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ |
Actually the starter Rockna Wavedream is $6k so that is not VERY expensive.
Although they do have more expensive models in the SE series.
So expenisve is allways going to be a relative terms.
In our shop we have dacs from $1k to $35k so compared to a $1k dac a $6k Dac is expensive, compared to a $35k dac a $6k one is pretty cheap.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
|
