rossb Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 You will get different answers but I have recorded a lot of vinyl over the last few years. I use an RME Babyface Pro as an A/D converter to record from my Kuzma Stabi Ref 2, with 4 Point arm and Dynavector XV-1S cartridge, and Einstein phono stage, and then stream through a Lumin U1 Mini to an Ayre QX5 dac. I suggest recording at 32 bits and either 96 or 192 and then downsampling the final product to 24/96 or even 16/44. I like vinyl but it is a low resolution medium and in my experience you will not hear any difference between replay at 16/44 and 24/384. Link to comment
rossb Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 On 11/13/2019 at 3:14 AM, The Computer Audiophile said: I’m working on my review of the X1 .... Very good news. With my X1 arriving in a few days, I will be very interested to read your review. Hopefully you will be able to include some comparisons with a few comparable DAC/streamers, such as the Ayre QX5, Mytek Manhattan II and - especially - the DCS Bartok. Link to comment
rossb Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 That's unfortunate. But I'm still looking forward to your review. Link to comment
rossb Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 2 hours ago, Vangelis said: Is the U1 Mini a audible upgrade from a UltraRendu? Yes. I went from an Ultrarendu to a U1 Mini and noticed a significant improvement. wklie 1 Link to comment
Popular Post rossb Posted March 5, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 5, 2020 I had the Chord DAVE/Blu 2. I now have the Lumin X1. Draw your own conclusion. On 2/27/2020 at 3:30 PM, wklie said: I also want to mention the matter of burn-in. Throughout the history of Lumin, a number of people told me they found their new Lumin sounded bad and even regretted the purchase. In all of those cases, after a lengthy burn in then they got the excellent SQ that Lumin truly offers. In the most recent report, one user of X1 (who also owned other top of the line ES9038PRO DACs) reported it initially sounded worse than a competitor, but after hundreds of hours of burn-in it became superior. This was my experience also. I seriously regretted buying the X1 in the first few weeks of owning it. It really did not sound very good. But over time its character transformed quite substantially, and now it sounds truly magnificent. I have owned a few Sabre dacs and in my experience they always take an unusually long time to burn in. The X1 probably took a few 300-400 hours before it started to show what it was capable of. wklie and audio.bill 1 1 Link to comment
rossb Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 Is anyone else finding that the Lumin X1 output is very high? Compared to other dacs I have it seems to be significantly louder, and appears to overload the input on the preamp. I have tried it with two different amps, both from the RCA and XLR outputs and it seems to be consistent across all of them. I am having to run it at the lower volume setting to prevent distortion. Link to comment
rossb Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 It seems to overload the inputs of both my Ayre AX5 Twenty and my LFD NCSE, even though it is well within spec for the input on the Ayre. It also depends on the music - highly compressed music with a mostly high output level seems to fare worst. Link to comment
rossb Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 At least the X1 does have the option of a reduced output level through the Lumin app, which is helpful, and seems to solve the problem. pl_svn 1 Link to comment
rossb Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 I think I would rather use a well implemented digital volume control than an analog attenuator, particularly if it's only a reduction of a few db. Link to comment
Popular Post rossb Posted April 8, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 8, 2020 Twenty six posts, all taking pot shots at a single product. Someone seems to have an agenda. wklie and The Computer Audiophile 2 Link to comment
rossb Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 Has anyone with a Lumin X1 noticed a change in sound quality with the 13 and 13a firmware? I may be imagining it, but there seems to be a subtle change with the most recent firmware, and not necessarily for the better. Link to comment
rossb Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 6 hours ago, wklie said: There is digital audio path optimization for Lumin X1 T2 analog output since Firmware 13 (at volume 100). I hope you find it to sound better as many users do, but if you think it's worse please let me know. I will try using the low volume setting. However, I find with Firmware 13 and 13a the sound is a little thinner and there is a little more background "hash" and high frequency noise. I definitely don't find it better. Is there a way to roll back to the previous firmware? Link to comment
rossb Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 I have reinstalled the 12 firmware on my Lumin X1 (thanks @wklie) and the sound is definitely improved. I found that the 13/13a firmware sounded thin and slightly noisy - and I don't usually pick up on differences between firmware versions. The 12 firmware sounds a little darker, fuller and weightier, with quieter backgrounds. I'd be interested to know if any other X1 owners have experienced anything similar with the latest firmware. Link to comment
rossb Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 I have a U1 Mini and an X1, and found that the uptone etherRegen (using a DH Labs ethernet cable) was a huge upgrade for both. When I used both the U1 Mini and the X1 as a digital source for another DAC, I actually found the improvement from the etherRegen was bigger than the difference between the U1 Mini and the X1. erniejade 1 Link to comment
rossb Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 I am using a generic (super cheap) ethernet cable to the etherRegen, and then a DH Labs ethernet cable to the DAC. Link to comment
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