Thread: S1 in the house.

Well, I finally drank Mike's coolaide and got an S1 Lumin from him. I had heard his Lumins many times during visits to his home. We have done a few shootouts with various dacs and such. Of course the Limin has faired very well in these comparisons.
So I was a bit anxious to tackle yet another system, and fuss with the issues common to getting these things to work. WHAT A PLESANT SURPRISE. This thing works with NO HASSLES !!

I hook it up.
I down load the app from Apple Store for free.
It automatically finds my network and starts communicating.
The I-Pad app works with no configuration on my part.
I install a USB stick with DSD music.....and IT PLAYS MUSIC.....DSD EVEN !!!!
All in less than 10 minutes. Wow, wow, wow.

So then I install my 4TB WD USB drive into a USB slot. NOTHING. No drive showing up. CRAP. I knew it was to good to be true. It was almost perfect. Oh well. I sat back to begin listening to a few songs to check out its "out of the box" sound quality. Very nice. All the audio adjectives were there in spades.
Then, I picked up the I-Pad to select another DSD selection, and BAM......there was my 4TB drive listed with all its DSD glory !!! I guess it loaded all the content from the drive before it displayed itself in the Lumin application. I have to tell you, I was smiling from ear to ear. This is how all computer audio/servers/streamers/etc. should work. I am sorry I didn't listen to Mike sooner. This is a quality product. Yea it can be bettered a tad by multi-thousand dollar dacs and such. But it is probably 90% of the quality of the finest gear available. And it works beautifully, without issues. Thank you Lumin for such a fantastic product !!!

Originally Posted by Paul

Jerry. Nice report .....so Mike treat you well ? eh ?

We do a serious amount of swapping/buying between us. But I have to say Mike has always been fair. I hope he's not listening.

Originally Posted by Paul

Uh-Oh....Watch out the Mike's Flu....It's very very bad ....It won't go away until your bank account is zero.


Where is the Pic Jerry ?

Will send along a pic soon, but I'm re-arranging my systems right now. I also picked up the MF NuVista 800 integrated from Mike, and am putting the Lumin and NuVista together to drive the Spatials. So maybe this evening i'll send along a photo. The room is a mess, as I have about four systems I am A/B'ing.....tearing apart....trying different combinations....etc.

Originally Posted by Mike

I want Jerry's incredible sounding MBL's....but he's hanging on to those!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What have ya got to trade ?? YOU KNOW where I'm heading in about 5 weeks......so the MBL's probably won't be around. I do have a swap in mind........if another deal doesn't come to fruitation.

Originally Posted by Mike

Uh oh!

Your kids are gonna think I'm moving in, if I keep bringing boxes in and out of the house.......lol.

Originally Posted by Ritmo

Congrats on your Lumin S1 Jerry! Glad it's as easy as 1, 2, 3... More importantly, great your happy with how it sounds.

Mike and Mark have been working me as well. I'm almost there.

It pairs up well with the D'Agostino monos and preamp. That is the first combination I tried. So it should be a pretty safe bet with your equipment !!

Originally Posted by Paul

Uh-Oh....Watch out the Mike's Flu....It's very very bad ....It won't go away until your bank account is zero.


Where is the Pic Jerry ?

Just got these racked up together. I am hoping that they find a great synergy !!

Originally Posted by Paul

Jerry, Thank you for post. Looks good. However would you mind the post the whole set up with speakers ?

Thanks in advance

Here is the north wall of my listening room where I just installed the Lumin and NuVista 800, to pair up with the Spatials.

Originally Posted by Paul

Jerry, Thank you for post. Looks good. However would you mind the post the whole set up with speakers ?

Thanks in advance

Here is the south wall of my listening room. I had the Lumin plugged in this system for a day. Now I've got a Lampizator 7 for this DSD/system. Like I said, "pardon the mess".....as I am trying lots of combinations.

Originally Posted by Paul

Wow...Thanks again. BEAUTIFUL !!!! How is the sounds ?

I see you have a MBL speakers and Pass amps other side of room (Its the glare I see in the TV ) . Excellent set up Jerry. How big is your room ?
You just flip the chair when you want to hear other set up ?

Yes, I have a nice stressless chair in the middle of the room.....and just spin it from one wall to the other. I just got the room completed about a month ago. It is 27' X 24' . So pardon my mess. I'm still working on my layout, decorating, etc. But of course, the audio must be settled FIRST.

Jerry, how do the Spatials compare to the MBL, please be honest & brutal!

Originally Posted by bzr

Jerry, how do the Spatials compare to the MBL, please be honest & brutal!

That is a tough comparison. These are two completely different speakers. The MBL's radiate 360 degrees, in every direction. This gives the listener an "enveloped surround sound - large hall" sort of effect. The speakers completely disappear, giving no indication of their location. Very spacious and lovely sound. Good bass and dynamics throughout the frequency range. A very smooth character to this fine speaker.
The Spatial Masters give a totally different presentation, as they throw a much tighter controlled pattern. You get a more "locked in position" feel for each instrument and performer. The sound seems more direct and dynamic, because of the use of pro drivers. The use of a compression driver gives more snap and pop to the mix.......giving it more of a live performance amplified sound. This is mostly very appealing. On bad recordings, they can kind of exaggerate your misery. The bass is awesome on these speakers, being very tight and full sounding (room dependent of course). You will not need a subwoofer with the Spatials.
I myself relate just a bit more to the Spatials, as I mixed live bands for over 30 years. The pro drivers make my hair stand up more often.....as my brain recognizes/relates their sound to more of a live event presentation. I was around live music 5 to 7 days a week, for a very long time. So I do not relate to most home speakers. They do not sound "live" to me. That live sound is drilled into my memory forever. But I imagine the MBL's would be better appreciated by most audiophiles. They have a very enticing, involving sound.....that is easy to listen to for long periods. You can shape their sound with IC's, speaker cables, etc. pretty easily. For 25k......you can enjoy these mint rosewood beauties I have. I am in the process of becoming an audio dealer, hoping to represent just a few world class lines of gear. The MBL's unfortunately, will not fit into that scenario. But I would choose to live with the MBL's for the rest of my life, if pressed to make a choice. Hope this helps answer your questions.

Originally Posted by Ritmo

Jerry -

Looks like it's coming together nicely.

How much do like the Lampi 7? Can you comment on it vs the Lumin?

Thx!

I've had both units for just a few days, so it's way too early for me make final comments. I can tell that these are both very competent pieces of gear. The Lumin is a sheer joy to get up and running, and has great sound. And I love the I-Pad app they developed for this unit. They have really done their homework.
But this Lampi 7 unit is already fleshing out an insane amount of detail, and "true to source" tone and timbre. I'm even impressed with the redbook playback. Most of the excitement is usually about the DSD playback of the Lampi.....but the redbook is great as well. Of course, it was a pain in the butt to get all the settings in my server just right, so it would begin playback. But the effort was worth what I'm hearing now !! I think this may be a long-term keeper, as it already has shown immence capability.
I am having a 60hz. hum noise issue on the Lampi, as I turn the volume up. DSD music always has to be turned up to a much higher volume on the preamp for some reason. So I will be diving into that issue tomorrow.

Great products, but I have 2 questions:


- Can I use the LUMIN if I do not have a WIRED ethernet connection in the listening room to connect to the iPAD app.


- is TIDAL or QOBUZ integrated now in the Lumin App to do HiFi streaming ?


thanks

Originally Posted by Mike

I called my Lumin Distributor for you. He said to check out the Netgear Universal Wifi Adapter for TV/BluRay. $50. Plug Lumin right into that. The Netgear device joins your existing wireless network and you're good to go.....

thanks a lot

In addition to Mike's good suggestions, I'd like to add that there are a lot of WiFi devices that support a WiFi "Client Mode: Gives wired-only devices access to an existing Wi-Fi networks". Most, if not all, TP-Link travel routers support that and have the benefit of being physically small. However, those small-sized routers have poor WiFi from personal experience.

If your main router supports dual band 5GHz / 2.4GHz, consider getting a WiFi client to Ethernet device that supports dual band 5GHz / 2.4GHz too.

Originally Posted by Mike

That's what the Lumin distributor uses this personally. He said, "I've had absolutely no drop outs". He has the "N300" version and said it works like a charm, but said there is N600 and N900 too. Not sure of the differences

The WNCE2001 (N300) is the basic version that supports 2.4GHz only. The WNCE3001 (N600) supports dual band 5GHz / 2.4GHz. The WNCE4004 (N900) has 4 Ethernet ports (i.e. you can connect 4 devices to it) and can make use of 3x3 antenna if your main router belongs to this class, but I believe this is overkill for the purpose of connecting a single device for music streaming only.