Thread: Replacement power cable for Lumin X1

The price quoted by ozzy is the price I paid, and in US$. Steve’s price is 1/3 the price of the Westminster Labs’ power cable.

Yes, That is the first question, does the AS cable make an improvement in sound quality? Then, is it worth the money?

ozzy

Questions posed by BlueFox and ozzy are spot on. I do tend to add accesssory items when I change/add new components. Though I advise patience in doing so, I have difficulty often times following my own advice on this. My initial impressions were neutral on the change. I wanted the new cable to be in use for at least a few weeks first. I have found it best to do so with other cables, such as power cables, interconnects and speaker wire, even if these were burned in by the manufacturer prior to shipping. AS offers this service on other cables, but I suspect not done on this one--custom cable, not standard stock offering, and specialized terminations for him to source and purchase. eickenho's question on comparison prompted me to get on with checking this. Changing X1 cables is more challenging than my other components, as I would guess other owners have encountered. I did indeed find improvement in my system with the AS cable compared to the stock one. I found it so on the various sample rates and different music selections I tested, with some very noticable and some more subtle.

The next question as stated by ozzy, is it worth the money? Truly, that is a question that is applicable for all the items in our audio systems. Being involved for some time in this hobby, we are more forgiving of the dollars we apply, but others outside this hobby certainly question the sanity and advisablility of spending the dollars we do, and on "accessories". For me, the answer after testing is yes.

Regarding the pricing on this compared to Steve Huang's model on other cables, I think there are additional expenses in parts and labor over what is typical for him. I also asked about use of carbon shielding, and Steve came up with a solution for me. I am hesitant to share more on this, preferring Steve provide what he wishes on this topic in a public forum, versus private emails to me. I have let Steve know about this thread, and suggeted he might wish to participate in this discussion. I believe he will do so. He responded end of last week he had registered for an account here and was awaiting activation email. I am hopeful he will be able to participate here in near future.

Will

Originally Posted by further

I have let Steve know about this thread, and suggested he might wish to participate in this discussion. I believe he will do so. He responded end of last week he had registered for an account here and was awaiting activation email. I am hopeful he will be able to participate here in near future.
Will

My apologies for the delay in responding. Was finally able to get the account activated this afternoon.

I added a full description of our Lumin X1 DC cable to the web site.
https://audiosensibility.com/blog/pr...tegory=2595837

The Lumin X1 power supply (PSU) provides five independent DC rails of power (one high current, four lower current). The Lumin X1 power supply cable uses top grade 10 pin Japanese DC connectors. All 10 pins of the connector are used with the required five twisted pairs of wire.

Like all high-end equipment manufacturers, Lumin provides very basic AC and DC power cables with the X1. This keeps the base cost of the X1 as low as possible. The customer can then independently decide if they wish to upgrade either of the stock cables.

The stock Lumin DC cable uses PVC insulated tough pitch copper (TPC) which is of a lower grade than OFC (better) or OCC (best) copper. Estimated cost is $2.00/m.

The Audio Sensibility DC cable uses cryogenically treated Teflon insulated OCC silver. This is the same OCC silver used in premium audio cables such as the Wireworld Platinum Eclipse 8 line.

OCC silver is very expensive and is the primary material cost of our cables. The Japanese DC connectors are also not inexpensive.

BTW: For this DC cable we are currently using Neotech solid core OCC silver wire. Wire use is 115% of the stated length of the cable.
https://audiosensibility.com/blog/wp...etailPrice.png

The DIY parts alone add up to 2/3 of the price of the AS X1 DC cable.

Of course the proof is in the pudding. A cable is only worth its price if the customer is happy with the system improvement.

Feel free to post follow up questions in this thread (or contact me privately) and I will do my best to answer.

I was unaware till today that this DC cable had been added to the AS website,
Power Cables (OCC copper) – Audio Sensibility

Note that the pricing reflected, with various length options, is shown in Canadian dollars. His website is showing a 13% discount coupon that can be redeemed, so with it and exchange rate for U.S. customers, the .5 meter version is less than $650. Before being additionally critical of AS pricing for this, I suggest taking a good look at the materials used in this design per his site:
At the heart of these cables is Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) silver with a purity of 99.99998% (7N). OCC silver does not possess the brightness/glare often associated with conventional silver due to the elimination of crystal boundaries.
Cable Geometry: 5 twisted pairs of Teflon insulated solid core OCC silver wire:
one 20AWG twisted pair for the high current DC rail
four 22AWG twisted pairs for the low current DC rails
special carbon fiber spacers provide separation between twisted pairs to reduce noise floor.
Connectors: The following connectors are available for use for PSU and component side:
Standard Lumin (10pin Hirose) connectors.
Covering: The cable is finished with Techflex expandable sleeving.
Other Details: The wire and connectors have been cryogenically treated. Mundorf Silver-Gold Supreme Solder is used for all solder connections.

Additionally, AS includes fabricated carbon fiber spacers--pictures of the cable done for me and the spacers and wire can be viewed on the above shown web link.

In case there is a concern, I do not have a business relationship nor personal relationship with Steve, other than being a very satisfied customer. I have found his products to be high quality, high value, and quite reasonable pricing, especially considering the materials used in his designs. From my experience, I will definately consider purchasing again as my needs--probably more accurate to label as desires rather than needs, dictate.

Will

Slightly off topic, but just wondering if anyone has upgraded the PSU on their Lumin S1, A1, or U1 to the X1 PSU?

Originally Posted by lscangus

The power supply was designed during the development as an upgrade for the existing S1 A1 U1 user. A number of users in this forum has done the upgrade.

I have been using the X1 PSU with the S1 for quite some time now. It definitely provides a sonic upgrade to the original S1 PSU. Prior to all of that I owned a T1. After about six months I purchased the top of the range Kenneth Lau PSU. This made a significant improvement over the PSU provided with the T1. When I upgraded to the S1, I found the S1 PSU to be 'hard' sounding compared to the Kenneth Lau PSU. However, after a few months of use I went back to the S1 PSU and let it burn in for about 100 hours. After that, it was clearly evident that the original S1 PSU was far superior to the K. Lau PSU.

A point of interest though was the fact that the power cable provided by Kenneth Lau was sonically superior to the S1 cable. Therefore I found the best combination to be S1 PSU with K. Lau power cable. When I came to a decision to sell my Kenneth Lau PSU, I contacted him first to ask if he would sell me a cable. He wanted £500 for this! The reason he stated was that the cable was very difficult to make. I therefore sold the Kenneth Lau PSU with the S1 cable!

As I know from experience that upgrading the power cable does make a difference, and I have no plans within the next couple of years to purchase the X1, I have now purchased a cable made by Steve that connects the X1 PSU to the S1. It arrived yesterday and is a very well constructed cable compared to a Kenneth Lau cable. It is in use as I write this, so I will compare it to the Lumin cable in a couple of weeks time.

Can anyone confirm that this is the correct connector for the X! ?

EIAJ Circular 10 Pin Male Connector

I'm going to try my hand on building a power cord.

Thanks,
ozzy

wklie,
The threads are blocks.
But is it the correct connector?

EIAJ Circular 10 Pin Male Connector

ozzy

Ok. Thanks!
ozzy

I have emailed Ghents Audio who sells a huge variety of DC cable, to see if they would be able to supply for my U1, however, Ghents haven’t replied so far.
I have purchased from Ghents and their DC cables are a great value and high quality.
Anyway, I still looking, because I really believe replacing the stock DC cable with something better can bring about improvements, as the Ghents have done for me.

Originally Posted by terryakhan

I have emailed Ghents Audio who sells a huge variety of DC cable, to see if they would be able to supply for my U1, however, Ghents haven’t replied so far.
I have purchased from Ghents and their DC cables are a great value and high quality.
Anyway, I still looking, because I really believe replacing the stock DC cable with something better can bring about improvements, as the Ghents have done for me.

Terry, give Audiosensibility a call, Im using their DC cable and its a quality piece.

Originally Posted by jeffhk

The Audio Sensibility cables are out of stock at the moment - according to their website the 10-pin connectors have been discontinued by the manufacturer.

Well I just visited the website and you are absolutely right. However, my custom X1 cable was just built for me and Ill be picking it up this week. So I guess I just got lucky, whats more concerning is exactly what kind of connector redesign this will prompt by Lumin.

Originally Posted by terryakhan

I have emailed Ghents Audio who sells a huge variety of DC cable, to see if they would be able to supply for my U1, however, Ghents haven’t replied so far.
I have purchased from Ghents and their DC cables are a great value and high quality.
Anyway, I still looking, because I really believe replacing the stock DC cable with something better can bring about improvements, as the Ghents have done for me.

I agree, the Ghent cables are great, I use two of them for my streaming setup. They can really provide an upgrade over the stock DC cables.

Just because the guy at Ghent hasn't replied yet, I wouldn't give up just yet, just keeping pinging him for a few days, I'm confident he'll get back to you. I know he's still running his business because Alex Crespi at UpTone told me just yesterday he is using Ghent Audio as his OEM supplier for a DC cable that UpTone is now selling.

In fact, come to think of it, just order the cable direct from UpTone, it's a Ghent DC cable made to Alex' specifications. From what Alex told me about it yesterday, it sounds like a really excellent cable. He had his engineer, John Swenson (who designed the EtherREGEN) also provide input on his specs for a quality DC cable.

Link here: SAPPHIRE Silver-Plated Star-Quad DC Cable – UpTone Audio

Job done. What's not to like?

It looks like the power cable is no longer available from AS.

ozzy

Originally Posted by ozzy

It looks like the power cable is no longer available from AS.

ozzy

I just picked up the last one made… yay me!

AudioSensibility appears to be showing available again for their power cable from power supply to X1.

It appears AS only has a few connectors though, so could be out of stock quite soon again.

I think AS only showed enough for 3 cables when I looked, and now does show Sold Out again.