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I live in a desert, both figuratively and literally; there is only one high-end audio dealer within 200+ miles of my home, and that local dealer carries McIntosh and Aurender only. Since neither of those line enamored me, I had to make my purchase decision of a streamer/DAC based on "the written word" -- lots of it.
Over time, I reduced my universe of possible purchases to three: Auralic Vega G1; Cary DMS-600; and Lumin T2. To enable me to finalize my decision, I first studied the descriptions of these streamer/DACs on their respective websites, and then I read every review of each I could find. Thanks to Google Translate, everything which I could discover was readable in English. Next, I read every posting about these units on AudioShark, Audiogon, and AVS Forum as well as smaller sites, including highly technical ones. Finally, I called dealers that carried at least two of the three streamer/DACs, seeking their impressions of the strengths and weaknesses of those units.
Through this process, I became increasingly aware of how vital reviews in audiophile magazines, blogs and on YouTube as well as forum posts are to people not fortunate enough to live in very large metropolitan areas. Given that we often are forced to make pricey decisions based upon the opinions of others, the more of those [credible] opinions we can obtain, the easier that decision-making becomes.
So as not to keep all of you in further suspense, let me disclose that I finally purchased the Lumin T2. In my case, price was not a major consideration. From all I could gather, the Lumin provided its owner with a listening experience slightly superior to the others. The sense I got was that this accomplishment was due to two factors: really good engineering/components and product focus, by which I mean is that the Lumin eschewed WiFi and Bluetooth wireless capabilities, switchable digital filters, multiple inputs (in order to function as a quasi-preamp) and the like. The Lumin does only one thing -- it captures a digital audio stream from the Internet or an attached storage device, decodes it and outputs the result as a highly accurate analog audio stream. In the end, that is all I really needed or wanted, namely a single purpose streamer with integrated DAC that works as well as one can reasonably expect at that price point.
I hope I'll be happy with my decision once the Lumin T2 has been the newest member of my audio system for a few weeks. Regardless, I'll follow up this initial posting with my actual impressions of the unit.
Over time, I reduced my universe of possible purchases to three: Auralic Vega G1; Cary DMS-600; and Lumin T2. To enable me to finalize my decision, I first studied the descriptions of these streamer/DACs on their respective websites, and then I read every review of each I could find. Thanks to Google Translate, everything which I could discover was readable in English. Next, I read every posting about these units on AudioShark, Audiogon, and AVS Forum as well as smaller sites, including highly technical ones. Finally, I called dealers that carried at least two of the three streamer/DACs, seeking their impressions of the strengths and weaknesses of those units.
Through this process, I became increasingly aware of how vital reviews in audiophile magazines, blogs and on YouTube as well as forum posts are to people not fortunate enough to live in very large metropolitan areas. Given that we often are forced to make pricey decisions based upon the opinions of others, the more of those [credible] opinions we can obtain, the easier that decision-making becomes.
So as not to keep all of you in further suspense, let me disclose that I finally purchased the Lumin T2. In my case, price was not a major consideration. From all I could gather, the Lumin provided its owner with a listening experience slightly superior to the others. The sense I got was that this accomplishment was due to two factors: really good engineering/components and product focus, by which I mean is that the Lumin eschewed WiFi and Bluetooth wireless capabilities, switchable digital filters, multiple inputs (in order to function as a quasi-preamp) and the like. The Lumin does only one thing -- it captures a digital audio stream from the Internet or an attached storage device, decodes it and outputs the result as a highly accurate analog audio stream. In the end, that is all I really needed or wanted, namely a single purpose streamer with integrated DAC that works as well as one can reasonably expect at that price point.
I hope I'll be happy with my decision once the Lumin T2 has been the newest member of my audio system for a few weeks. Regardless, I'll follow up this initial posting with my actual impressions of the unit.
