Media Server Reviews

Lumin P1 streaming D/A preamplifier Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ file server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; MBL N31 CD player/DAC; PS Audio DirectStream DAC.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 804D, GoldenEar BRX, KEF LS50.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), AudioQuest Coffee (USB), DH Labs (1m, AES3). Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue (balanced). Speaker: AudioQuest Robin Hood. AC: AudioQuest Dragon Source & High Current, manufacturers' own.
Accessories: Target TT-5 equipment racks, Ayre Acoustics Myrtle Blocks; ASC Tube Traps, RPG Abffusor panels; AudioQuest Niagara 5000 Low-Z Power/Noise-Dissipation System (amplifiers) and AudioQuest Niagara 1000 Low-Z Power/Noise-Dissipation System (source components). AudioQuest Fog Lifters cable supports. AC power comes from two dedicated 20A circuits, each just 6' from breaker box.
Room: 20' (left side), 25' (right side) × 16' × 8'.—John Atkinson

COMPANY INFO
Pixel Magic Systems Ltd.
US distributor: Source Systems Ltd.
San Clemente, CA 92672-6000
(949) 369-7729
sourcesystemsltd.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
rwwear's picture
Submitted by rwwear on March 23, 2022 - 7:27pm

Rather expensive but at least it has HDMI inputs unlike most other modern DACs.

Kursun's picture
Submitted by Kursun on March 23, 2022 - 11:34pm

I am disillusioned by some of the fancy and expensive equipment Stereophile reviews.
A $12.000 phono preamp with only 3 db overload margin...
A $10.000 streaming preamplifier with only 1.2 kOhm input impedance (really?)...
These are all very serious design flaws.

C'mon, your readers surely deserve better equipment, without getting ripped!

Jack L's picture
Submitted by Jack L on March 27, 2022 - 8:56am

Hi

Any publishers need advertising sponsors to keep their journals running so the readers can read them. They are running a business not a charity.

So they would not & could not turn down any vendors' new components for review. This is their business 'law'.

Stereophile is a much better journal as it got a technical dept to provide its readers the bench measurement data vs the specs provided by the equipment manufacturers.

Yes, you are right: 1,240 - 1,260 ohm is rediculously way too low for any decently designed audio inputs. No wonder the Chinese manufacturer does not publish it. Who would spend 10 grands to buy such lousy design & built cheap in China ????????????

Jack L

Jim Austin's picture
Submitted by Jim Austin on March 27, 2022 - 9:34am

So they would not & could not turn down any vendors' new components for review. This is their business 'law'.

We routinely choose not to review components offered to us for review, by advertisers and nonadvertisers alike. (There's no difference.) This should be obvious when you consider that far more components are released than that Stereophile reviews.

Jim Austin, Editor
Stereophile

Jack L's picture
Submitted by Jack L on March 27, 2022 - 10:13am

Hi

I see. I stand corrected.

Jack L

TJ's picture
Submitted by TJ on March 24, 2022 - 5:13pm

Thanks John, beautifully engineered beyond a doubt, and I always look forward to your intriguing analyses of the sound quality. But on the topic of SQ, what about digital room correction? That's becoming a core component of a modern, transparent audio system. In comparison, a network streaming DAC with DSP takes SQ to a new level, eg the miniDSP SHD with Dirac 3 and much else at almost a tenth of the price. A paradigm change?

Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on March 24, 2022 - 10:50am

JA's measurements, but not his ears... huh.

Sounds like there is no trust.

His review is important; these comments above are not.

I would really love for JA to review the latest Wadax Network Streamer and its 'wave-shaping' controls for getting closer to a more perfect analog waveform. I think it might address some of his consternation regarding the AES3 and network streaming comparisons he brought up in the review.

rex's picture
Submitted by rex on March 24, 2022 - 3:21pm

Peter Wklie, Project Manger at Lumin, who seems to have the job or answering all enquiries about Lumin
on AudioShark: answered Why their might be sonic benefits of the L1 over the Nucleus.

He writes:
"Unlike a typical NAS, the L1 eliminates all non-essential network services, so there is less network traffic that is unrelated to music transfer, and the L1 itself will not be affected by background detection of network file (and other) services by computers. Since digital audio is heavily affected by timing jitter, I have always wondered whether this aspect of L1 can result in audio improvement, however minimal it may be."

I have both the L1 and the Nucleus with ssd drives and I do hear an improvement of the L1, wether playing files or streaming from Roon. However it's minor and not as easy as to detect the bump in quality as compared to playing anything from a computer.

The fact that Mr. Atkinson can hear a difference is no surprise.

bradchaus1960's picture
Submitted by bradchaus1960 on March 26, 2022 - 5:47am

you dont suppose you are actually tossing yourself when you listen to this thing or writing the review, and waiting for the advertising contract to be signed?

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on March 27, 2022 - 6:25am
bradchaus1960 wrote:
you dont suppose you are actually tossing yourself when you listen to this thing or writing the review...

No.

bradchaus1960 wrote:
...and waiting for the advertising contract to be signed?

Sigh. Although I have the title of Technical Editor, I am a freelance contractor and have no connection with Stereophile's advertising department and no insider knowledge of which companies advertise. And even when I was the magazine's editor, there was no connection between advertising and editorial content. See this essay I wrote in 1996: www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/366/index.html. Editor Jim Austin practices the same policy.

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

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