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Lumin X1 latest Review like we have been saying



For many years we have been touting the Lumin products as being one of the best sounding and best implimented paths to creating a fantastic sound in your system.

We sought to be a Lumin dealer after the A1 came out and pretty much got rave reviews as being the best sounding streamer out there, each successive product was better the new T2 is amazing at its price point and challenges $7k streamer/dacs/

The lastest review https://hometheaterreview.com/lumin-x1-network-player-reviewed/

sums up Lumins history and even offers a comparison of the X1 vs the Total Dac, and DCS and the Aqua Formula, we actually have tested the upgraded Formula V2 with the Statement and it does sound even bettter.
 
Summation the best sound the reviewer ever accheived was with the X1.

We sell some of the worlds best dacs, including T+A, Light Harmonic, Aqua Hif, Naim, Mytek, Bricasti, and with the X1 you have to spend $30-50k to better the X1, it is nice to see that other people are agreeing with exactly what we have been saying all along.

If you are looking for the best sound for the money, rock solid reliability, a fantastic feature set, Tidal, Qbouz, Spotify, Apple Airplay to play Youtube or Soundcloud, OTA upgrades, Roon endpoint, full Mqua, DSD and High data rate upsampling, upconversion and playability, solid build quality, built in volume control, the Lumin products are hard to beat.



Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin dealers
128x128audiotroy
jorgjean
76 posts
 
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.


audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy OP
3,637 posts
 
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
jafox
1,451 posts
 
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?
jorgjean
76 posts
 
@audiotroy:
I prefer Apple Music over Tidal. In my opinion it offers superior user guidance / playlists. It synchronises easily with all my Apple devices. 
As for SQ, difficult to compare but for shure good recordings sound good on either services and bad ones will sound bad, whatever resolution. As we all know blind test have shown that human can only hear a difference if the resolution goes beyond V -2 which is below 44kHz , 192 kbit/s. Apple is well within this spec with 256 kbit/s. Listen for example to some of Allan Taylor recordings which are usually of high quality, they sound great over Airplay. 

Roon, yes i did take a yearly subscription. The interface is great, very informative. I could probably find the same info in Wikipedia. As for SQ of Roon I must confess that I was disappointed, it sounded thin and liveless, compared to playing through the Bluesound App. I don‘t understand the hype, maybe I am missing something. 
Sounds all a bit negative, sorry for that. 
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy OP
3,637 posts
 
Jorgern, we have done tests of 16 bit 44khz digital and then the same piece of music up-sampled up to higher frequencies and also converted to DSD as well, if you can't hear the difference you really need to do a lot more testing or your gear doesn't have the resolution.

Airplay is a good convenience but in terms of sound quality, Tidal sounds better running through Roon and being up-sampled to higher frequencies sounds way better, 24 bit 192k sounds good, on our test dacs the sound becomes airy more relaxed and the entire sound stage sounds bigger, at DSD sampling the midrange usually sounds more full and the top end all sounds a bit more rolled off in a good way.

One of the keys to running Roon is to use the DSP functions and then run the up-sampler.

As per features of Roon that people like:

1: Whole house audio you can control Sonos, Naim, Nad Blue sound, Chromecast, Apple Airplay, Heos, and many other devices all through one convenient interface with grouping and syncronization.

2: The ability to use DSD functionality to change low res digital into high res digital be it PCM or DSD.

3: Roon Radio which selects music based on what you are playing as well as selections from Tidal and Obouz. 

4: Integration of stored music and streaming services

5: A superb user interface with album bio

6: Understanding the way that each artist has similar artists, artists which are impacted by the original artist, similar, following, influenced tabs which help you identify new artists.

Roon has the best music interface, Blue Sound's interface pales in comparison.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


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