Lumin X1 or dCS Bartok

Also, don’t agree that the X1 isn’t a good value because it runs a Sabre chip. There are DACs based on the 1704 chip which cost a few hundred dollars, while the Trinity DAC uses the same chip and costs $60,000. So much more to it than that.

I’ve heard the X1 and Bartok in the same system, and they definitely have different sound characters. I preferred the X1 by a considerable margin, in fact I thought the Lumin T2 bested the Bartok (at less than 1/3 of the price). The Bartok is no slouch though, and includes digital inputs and the optional head amp neither of which are available on the Lumins.

The best way I could describe the difference would be that the Lumin’s sounded more real and natural. Guitars, pianos, voices, etc... sounded more like they do in real life. As a result everything sounds less like a recording. I went in expecting the Bartok to be clearly superior, and I was also prejudiced against Sabre chip based DACs. The Bartok has a much better feature set, and will undoubtedly hold its value better, the Lumin’s just sounded better.