Lumin X1 latest Review like we have been saying

jorgean, you may be confusing our enthusiasm for Lumin’s with our observations on the totality of the subject of streamers and dacs.

Yes the Lumin products are universally praised and are indeed excellent, however we have never said that their products are unbeatable or that someone might prefer the sonic signature or feature set of another product.

If you follow our posts even on this thread, we mentioned we brought in Bricasti’s new M3 dac because it has an analog volume control and digital inputs which are features that the Lumin T2 lacks, as well as an option for a headphone amp.



So if in our tests the Bricasti is better it is also alot more money to gain its sound quality and feature set.

In terms of pure streamers we sell alot of Innous severs for a couple of reasons: the first being many of our clients love the idea of Roon and being able to play with sample rate conversion and whole house audio which are things that Roon does very wel.

The second point: considering the Innous servers are designed to run Roon very well they make an excellent choice to be a Roon Core.

The third point: add to that the built in CD ripper to digitize a persons CD collection

The fourth point, the sound quality of the Innous servers is excellent.

So in the case of a streamer being added to a dac you have to see what each platform offers.

Aurenders servers are excellent however, they do not allow for upsampling or whole house audio control or eq which are features in Roon.

Naim and NAD makes decent servers but the Naim doesn’t allow for Tidal or any streaming it is just a CD library and the NAD Blue Sound Vault and 50.2 are good devices but not built to the ultimate audio quality design modality of the Aurener, Lumin and Innous products.

Hope this helps.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin, Innous, NAD, Naim, dealers

I truly believe everyone has the right to post in this public forum, however this is a dealer promoting products he sells.  Grain of salt here.

Shure, each situation is different and decisions to be made in that context. 
I find Apple Music very convenient and therefore I use Airplay a lot. Thats why I am asking whether the benefits of a superior streamer or transport also apply to Airplay? 
I am very happy with the Benchmark DAC and also have a Benchmark ADC to digitize vinyls. No intention to move away.  
For me the upgrading of the Preamplifier brought a noticable improvement, it helped on the streaming side including Airplay aswell as on the analog side. That investment was worthwile.

Jorgean, Apple Music through Airplay may be very convenient but you are not getting the sound quality out of your Benchmark dac. 

If you like Apple Music get a trial Roon subscription and see how the Roon interface with Tidal compares. 

Roon is very graphical and works wonders, than you can explore adding a real server and running your dac with a real signal.

You will be shocked at how much better your system sounds.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

For those of us who continue to play digital through a simple/conventional means, i.e., through a CD player or use a PC for music files, occasionally a streaming service, e.g., Spotify, is there still a means for such a setup to compete with all the SOTA servers of today? .... or is it pretty much time to bite the bullet and get such a server?

I have read a little about Roon on various threads and sites but I have yet to find a writeup which is detailed and concise as the the pros/cons of Roon, why does one want or need it, and can many of us skip it altogether and stay focused on other digital front-end refinements?  Can some recommend ONE site/link where this is covered in such detail that such questions are answered?