Luxman D10x USB Input

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lightmentat

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I have had the Luxman D10x for a few months. The DAC is better than my previous DACs but I felt the performance never matched its reviews and more importantly it couldn't hold a flame to my comparatively lowly Rega Planar 8 TT and Soundsmith Paua II cartridge. 80% of my listening is jazz. I generally try to get audiophile vinyl pressings and accompanying CD/SACD that was mastered by the same engineer (so Analogue Productions pressing and corresponding SACD). For months whenever I compared digital to corresponding vinyl, turntable always came out noticeably ahead.

Typically, I only played mofi SACDs in the unit and for redbook, I would rip CD to my Aurender A10 streamer and then stream from Aurender HDD into Luxman via USB. I only listen to the redbook layer of AP SACDS because quite frankly the DSD layers of their SACDs sound flat and lifeless to me (almost like the DSD layer is a flat tape transfer without any EQ to liven up signal).

So the HDD on my Aurender A10 stopped working for a couple of days and I started listening to CDs on the Luxman rather than streaming. That’s when I noticed how much better CDs sounded vs streaming from HDD, so I started looking at my streaming chain as the weak point. I got a digital converter (Singxer SU-6) to reclock and convert USB signal to coaxial. I cannot overstate how much the Singxer improved the signal; streaming is now close to parity if on not on par with playing physical media.

Things have gotten so much better that my digital now sounds better than many of my vinyl records and I'm pondering if I should go all digital.

But what I need to figure out is where the USB weakness is coming from, is it from my streamer or the Luxman. I am hoping that some other D10x owners can comment on their experience streaming via USB. As much as I like what the Singxer is doing, it can only output via spdif or I2S; and since Luxman doesn’t have I2S, I can only use spdif which can’t handle DSD on the Luxman. I also note that the Aurender A10 doesn't have spdif out, only USB.
 
lightmentat said:
I got a digital converter (Singxer SU-6) to reclock and convert USB signal to coaxial. I cannot overstate how much the Singxer improved the signal; streaming is now close to parity if on not on par with playing physical media.

Things have gotten so much better that my digital now sounds better than many of my vinyl records and I'm pondering if I should go all digital.
Click to expand...

The Singxer looks like a very interesting product.

To answer the question you’re pondering: NOOOOOOOOO! Do NOT sell that table.

As for what’s causing issues, I would say USB implementation is usually mixed at best. I would suggest adding an N20/N200 and using the SPDIF connection. An ACS10 might also be worth considering for your ripping and it’s superb Ethernet filtering.

But don’t sell that turntable. No amount of digital dingleberries (to quote MEP), can replace the crummy A2D’s and digital compression used by studios. That’s not to say digital can’t sound great, it can! But I wouldn’t give up my analog rig unless I only listened to music produced in the past 5-10 years. Most of the stuff I listen to is prior to 1980.


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Mike said:
The Singxer looks like a very interesting product.

To answer the question youÂ’re pondering: NOOOOOOOOO! Do NOT sell that table.

As for whatÂ’s causing issues, I would say USB implementation is usually mixed at best. I would suggest adding an N20/N200 and using the SPDIF connection. An ACS10 might also be worth considering for your ripping and itÂ’s superb Ethernet filtering.

But donÂ’t sell that turntable. No amount of digital dingleberries (to quote MEP), can replace the crummy A2DÂ’s and digital compression used by studios. ThatÂ’s not to say digital canÂ’t sound great, it can! But I wouldnÂ’t give up my analog rig unless I only listened to music produced in the past 5-10 years. Most of the stuff I listen to is prior to 1980.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

Hey Mike! It's Arize. If you remember, I flew in from Atlanta to buy the Fyne 704 from your shop. I'm still loving those speakers man (took em a while to break in though). As far as the Rega, I kinda feel, I will need to upgrade the set up to match what I'm hearing from the Luxman in the last couple of days. I'm going to give it some time to make sure I'm not overreacting. Like you most of the stuff I listen to was originally recorded on tape. I am definitely open to upgrading streamer; I am reading up on the higher end Aurender you mentioned as well as Auralic G2.1.
 
lightmentat said:
Hey Mike! It's Arize. If you remember, I flew in from Atlanta to buy the Fyne 704 from your shop. I'm still loving those speakers man (took em a while to break in though). As far as the Rega, I kinda feel, I will need to upgrade the set up to match what I'm hearing from the Luxman in the last couple of days. I'm going to give it some time to make sure I'm not overreacting. Like you most of the stuff I listen to was originally recorded on tape. I am definitely open to upgrading streamer; I am reading up on the higher end Aurender you mentioned as well as Auralic G2.1.
Click to expand...

Hi! The Aurender is better all around than the Auralic. The N200 or N20 is the way to go. But don’t sell that turntable. You’ll regret it. The other thing is to look at the DAC, especially if you’re not spinning CD’s much. An MSB might be a better play.


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I've been streaming from the Lumin X1 to the Luxman D10X via usb and think it sounds great, and on par with disc playback. I'm pretty sure I've convinced myself that the D10X is better than the Lumin X1 in my system. I compared using the same cables on each player.
My usb cable is a Japanese import and is a solid core, silver conductor design, the AIM Shieldio UA3-R015.
 
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