Does Lumin x1 needs a dac ? does a good dac will improve it ?

Lumin X1 is an ultra premium product go back to your dealer and get some suggestions if you're not happy because you should be.

It has in addition to the regular dac a 1 bit dac for DSD. It has direct fibre optic input for streaming to minimize jitter and noise.

Sounds to me like you need to understand how all the features work.

Good Luck

@haimr Thank you for your kind words. However after looking at your system I would think that the problem lays with your speakers. I'm very old school and I believe speakers should be made out of wood. Most musical instruments are wooden. IMHO fibreglass (Vivid) or aluminium (Magico) cannot reproduce the soul of music but it can and will produce clinical detail in abundance. For a similar speaker I'd strongly suggest you give the Eggleston Works OSO a try. They should work beautifully with your valve power amp. Try them with and without your pre amp. I'm a dyed in the wool Eggleston fan, full disclosure.

Word of caution on the Lumin it is very, very sensitive to every type of cable you use with it. My dealer uses it as his reference front end because it's so transparent, that can be a good or bad thing but needs good system matching.

There are always better DACs but I'd get everything else right first.

Good Luck

@azwill  "It is my opinion you can add much of the sound signature by using short one at end connected to a less expensive cable when you need length."

This is so mad it might just work! Take it a step further and you could have Kubala Sonsa on the pre amp end, Transparent in the middle and Tara Labs on the source end :)

Well very few use a complete loom of one brand.