From an MHDT to an Audio Mirror, quick impressions


A Tubadour IV SE I ordered on 10/12 appeared today.  It replaces a stock Orchid fed by an n130 Node with PD Creative power board and Sbooster LPS.  I’ve just finished a half hour session, including 15 min of warm up.  Right out of the box it’s showing off.  Smooth, articulate and quick with much tighter bass.  It keeps the musicality of the Orchid and improves on the pace.
The soundstage is deeper with a more “You are there” feel than the up front “They are here” feel of the Orchid.  That’s all for now.   For three times the cost I hoped for a noticeably better DAC.  What I got was a major surprise and a huge upgrade.  Really anxious to put some hours on it.

wlutke

@wlutke 

It’s great to hear that you’re getting more than expected from your Tubadour IV- and old Tele’s are the way to go in NOS DAC’s. I use the same in my Aqua La Scala. I’ve always followed other’s experiences with these DAC’s as they seem to be great performers. I also appreciate your decision to get rid of the original knobs! 

@scthom 

It’s simple.  Just remove the top plate, unplug the old tube, plug in the new.  That’s it.  No bias adjust or anything.
 

@designsfx
Had to!

@ericsch ,

Honestly I hated the app at first.  My first impressions:

Intuitive it is not.  

Extra steps a few.  

Frustrating it is.  
For instance, on first fire up the control panel popped up, grayed out and unresponsive.  There are four inconspicuous icons with no text, not highlighted and containing  the symbols for Tidal, Quobuz, Spotify and Intune radio.  If you’re not familiar with those symbols too bad. Push the appropriate button and it’s time to play.  Or is it?  Radio FLAC stations pop right up with the radio button.  Some encouragement there, at least it’s not bricked.  Want to add stations?  Go to the Intune site, set up a free account, favorite some stations.  Go back to the Lumin, select the utilities menu, select options, select internet radio setting, select update radio channels.  Next.

Want Tidal for instance?  Push the button, sign in and you’re gold.  Or are you?  Find your Tidal playlists under My Music, Playlists, then pick your list.  You’ll find yourself back at the start page, which shows your selected playlist on the right (now called a “song list”) and an empty “playlist” on the left where the on deck tracks go.  Super!  Touch a track on the right, it transfers to the left and plays.  Hallelujah!  One track and stops.  Clear the playlist (left side) with the trash can icon. So how to populate the entire song list on the right  to the playlist on the left?  Go to utilities, choose song list double tap.  Then back to the song list (right side)  and highlight each song using a single tap.   A row of icons appears below the selected tracks.  Push the first one on the left.  Scroll the next set of songs and repeat.  When  all songs are transferred to the playlist (left side), go to the left side icons at the bottom.  Touch the second icon to create a new playlist and name it.  The list will be saved.  Don’t look for it anywhere but here.  The music note icon will bring it up again.  All lists will be saved here so do it one time and never again, thankfully.  Things get simple at that point.  All the extra work is done.  Radio stations access via the radio icon and saved Tidal lists access through the music icon, all on the same page.  
Ok, that sounds nightmarish but the truth is it’s only a couple of unfamiliar operations to learn, no worse than my first look at Bluesound.   The difference is a baby can figure out Bluesound, it takes time to realize Lumin.  They’re equally. convenient once you know the ropes.  Takes a few days.