After living with a D10x for a over a year and also auditioning some other Luxman products, the only positive thing i can say about Luxman as a brand is that their products look very nice. Sound quality wise, they are consistently underwhelming and quality control is not consistent. That D10x despite all its heft did not sound as good as a Topping D90. I currently now use a Holo May and it absolutely runs circles around the Luxman D10x. If you don’t mind the ESS sound signature, there are far superior and dramatically cheaper options to any of the Luxman DACs.
New Luxman DA-06 doesnt sound so great. Will it get better?
Hi, I recently received a Luxman DA-06 dac (new, gray market Japan import) and it the sound doesnt seem to have any life. It sounds a bit dull, uninvolving, and just low fidelity. The best way can explain it is that it sounds like when a phono cartridge has a bad impedance mismatch with a preamp or if the signal gain is too high and it is clipping . The unit only has less than 15 hours on it. I wanted to know if this is normal and it would clear itself up or I have received a bad unit. I have tried it in 2 different systems and it sounds the same. I have tried both outputs, balanced and unbalanced. I have read this dac requires 100s of hours break in time and I hope the sound improves. Anyone has any experience with this and could share their thoughts? I would greatly appreciate it.
Showing 3 responses by arize84
@azwill I bought my unit from an authorized dealer in the US. My source (Aurender A10) is definitely a weakness. The A10 is one of Aurender's earlier units and its USB out is relatively not great (A10 was designed more as a DAC than streamer for outboard DAC). However, I have a DDC that in the chain that cleans up signal before going to DAC. I have used the following DACs while/since owning the D10x (Topping D90, Gustard x26, Holo Audio May, Lumin D2, T+A DAC 200); I would choose any of those DACs over the Luxman. Similar to your experience, I2S has been the best connection in my experience (a connection the D10x lacks). The USB input on the D10x is not very good either; its coaxial input has a much better sound but can't accept DSD signal. Newer DACs like the Holo May and T+A 200, do such a good job cleaning up incoming USB signals that a DDC is redundant with those units. The T+A is the most revealing DAC I have ever heard in my system; On one of my favorite jazz albums (Woody Shaw – In my own sweet way), I was able to pick up the minute vibrations and not just shimmer of the hi hats (I have never experienced that level of inner detail from a DAC or turntable). The DAC 200 also outpaced my Holo May with respect to bass and dynamics. It was almost shocking what that little box could deliver. |
@milpai Maybe I did, but I don’t remember saying Luxman being as good as $20K DACs, because I have never evaluated a +$20K DAC in my system. In isolation, the D10x is a fine DAC; but when you start comparing it to cheaper high end Chinese/South Korean DACs, it quickly shows its weaknesses. All my evaluation was done using Gryphon Pandora preamp and Gryphon Essence amp going into Fyne Audio F704 speakers.
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