LUMIN - Audiophile Network Music Player

[matthias]

1 hour ago, Joel6m said:

Hi all,

 

I am not a very active member of this forum but just to provide you with some further details:

It's important first to understand that the interest of the Leedh Processing is to purely withdraw the analog preamplifier from the playback chain. It's a very easy experience and it's completely meaningful about the level of coloration and distortion released by the best preamplifiers. At the early beginnings of the Leedh Processing tests, I had the opportunity to compare its efficiency and transparency versus some of the very best devices like the Ypsilon PST100 MK2 or the Robert Koda Takumi K10 for instance. All have been outclassed by this simple digital volume processing.

Unfortunately, sometimes people don't look for the ultimate transparency and will find that their colored preamp bring warmer voices, more convincing bass or whatever... It's a matter of choice and I completely respect this appoach. But if you look for the ultimate transparency, especially for classical music, which is in my opinion a more demanding musical genre in terms of high fidelity, then the Lumin streamers are definitely a highly commendable choice as they offer the best volume setting existing on the market for free.

I would like to precise also that I have found during my review of the X1 and Lumin Amps a bit more transparency when you let the maximum volume in the Lumin settings at full scale (100%) using only the usual circular controller on top of the Lumin app. I do not understand why, as Lumin engineers have used exactly the same attenuation values than the full scale volume, but that makes a difference in my system. So I would recommend to not use the maximum volume option for evaluation purposes.

If you desire to compare your analog preamplifier whith the Leedh processing, also ensure that you can set you analog preamp at full volume (adjusting then the desired attenuation from the Lumin app). You will then be able to reverse the test with the Lumin app set at 100% and the attenuation adjusted on the knob of your analog preamp. If you don't set your analog preamplifier at its max volume, then you should keep the distortion of your analog preamp. So in that case, it's better to directly withdraw your preamplifier from the playback chain to assess the performance of the Leedh Processing, especially if you use a tube preamplifier which generate noise at max volume...

 

I think gain matching of the complete set-up is most important as well because the Leedh Processing is not lossless with greater attenuation than 30dB.

 

Matt

[matthias]

22 minutes ago, barrows said:

It should be noted that this holds true for analog volume controls as well.  An analog volume control is far from "perfect", and analog volume controls add their own noise and distortion to the signal.  The more attenuation one applies with an analog volume control, the more noise it will add (this is resistor noise, which increases with the amount of resistance).  So proper system gain matching is always advised for best performance.

An exception would be the analog volume controls which adjust the gain of the circuit directly, rather than just being an attenuation stage (Ayre, Mola Mola, PS Audio, maybe some others).  But it is important to note that these types of volume controls are not perfect either, generally speaking, every circuit is going to have a certain range of gain in which it performs its best, and large deviations away from that gain level will come with increased distortion and noise.

 

All this being said, in my experience, one can get an increase in transparency and overall fidelity, for sure, no matter how you achieve it, by getting rid of the preamp (assuming the DAC has a robust enough output stage to drive the amplifier's input stage properly).  And I feel, that given good implementation, and gain matching, a digital volume control, or an analog one, is not going to result in audible sonic problems if critical listening happens at -20 dB or above.  Just avoid pairing an amp with 30 dB of gain and 500 watts of power with 93 dB efficient speakers!

 

 

This time we agree 🙂

 

Matt

[matthias]

1 hour ago, wklie said:

This is an evaluation of Lumin X1 Leedh Processing Volume by Wesley Miaw of Neko Audio LLC:

 

Quote:

"The volume was set at 55/100 the entire time."

 

Can you please shed some light on the attenuation of this volume setting?

I suppose it is more than 30dB where Leedh processing is not lossless.

Thanks

 

Matt

[matthias]

2 hours ago, wklie said:

there will be Spotify HiFi soon

 

Do you know when the waiting is over?

Thanks

 

Matt

[matthias]

19 minutes ago, wklie said:

 

Even if I do (but I really don't know), I won't be able to reveal it due to NDA.

 

According to the press release earlier, it should happen before the end of the year, i.e. within 3 months.

 

Just an additional question:

 

Were you able to listen to it, or is this also under NDA?

 

Thanks again

 

Matt

[matthias]

On 11/22/2021 at 3:53 AM, wklie said:

Hopefully in the near future, when Spotify launches HiFi and you upgrade to it, you'll get lossless streaming.  This is already working, but you need to have the HiFi account first.

 

Peter,

what happens with the development costs Lumin had for implementing Spotify HIFI in Lumin products when Spotify do NOT launch Spotify HiFi?

Thanks

 

Matt

[matthias]

Another point might be that with Spotify HiFi Lumin would most certainly sell more products than without.

 

Matt

[matthias]

6 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

You already know the answer to the question. 

 

No, actually I was astonished at his answer.

 

Matt

[matthias]

@wklie

 

I would like to ask three questions regarding the new U2 mini:

 

1.) Is the U2 mini able to convert Spotify stream to DSD256 and to output it to an USB-DAC?

2.) Is the U2 mini able to convert FLAC up to 24/192 from Qobuz to DSD256 and to output it to an USB-DAC?

3.) Is the U2 mini able to power a pure USB-DAC via the USB Vbus with minimum 5V/500mA?

 

Thank you

 

Matt

[matthias]

@wklie

What do you think about to be partner with Audirvana?

I think it would be win-win situation for both.

 

Thx.

 

Matt