Lumin X1 or dCS Bartok

Fiza, your explanation of your findings is not based on fact.

Lumin uses Lundhal output transformers which acts as a buffer between the output stage and the incomming signal from the Luimin into the  preamplfier or power amplifier.

A Macintosh amplifier uses an autoformer as a load matching device which contains thousands of feet of wire, vs a the Lundhal which uses a tiny amount of wire in comparison to an output or load matching transformer.  

The Macintosh amplfiers use this technique to enable the amplifier to see a common load vs a direct coupled solid state amplfication stage which can provide enough current to power an arc welder. 

Also your assumptions on cost of the Lumin are just wrong, the case of both the power supply and main chassis are cut from solid billet aluminum this drives up costs dramatically and provides a very inert chassis, factor in the cost of the dac chips, two circuit boards the Lundhal output transformers, three high end toridial main power transformers you can see this is not an inexpensive product, that also doesn't take into consideration the rest of the costs in manufacturing, the importers profit, shipping and research and development.

The fact that the Lumin X1 compares to much more expensive front ends is testament to its value proposition. 

We have a store full of dacs, in order to beat the X1 you have to spend $30k- 50k, The X1 sounds dramatically better than the less expensive digital products.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin dealers

Schelle, have you used the  upsampling/cross conversion tab in the Lumin? 

Most of our clients prefer running their X1 with the PCM 44k tab set to DSD 128 which usually makes the Lumin' sound more liquid.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin dealers

Ross a set of Critical Mass Centerstage footers will also make a huge difference. 

We are a major Lumin dealer and have had extensive experience with DCS in the past, in fact Wilgolf is one of our clients.

The battle between DCS and Lumin can be summed up with DCS tends to favor resolution over musicality, not saying the DCS is harsh, but there is a distinctly clean uncolored but not harsh presentation to the DCS while the Lumin tends to be a very dimensional, and very engaging sound also with excellent resolution. 

We had a client many years ago trade in a DCS Rossini for a Lumin A1 which he found to offer a more relaxed presentation while still offering much of the clarity of the DCS. 

Lumin's products are also a technological tour de force, Lumin is a division of Pixel magic a large Taiwanese manufacturer of broadcast video products. There engineering dept has the resources of a very large high end company.

Spinaker  the Lumin X1 also uses a FPGA as well, the reality is a FPGA really doesn't mean much, most of these companies use mature filtering techniques and don't need to come up with magic software upgrades every few months, the advantage of an FPGA is that you can add and improve features easily through firmware, 

The Lundhal transformers are really magical and do help the X1 with its liquid sounding midrange. 

Very few people will walk away from the X1 to hear one is to fall in love with one.

The X1 has a huge three dimensional sound stage, good top and bottom extension, excellent resolution and air, a warm full bodied midrange and a great feature set, MQA, Roon endpoint, a great app, easy software upgrades, optical isolation 

We sell some of the world's best digital products from Aqua, Light Harmonic, T+A, Naim, Innous, and a few others. 

The summation is that the X1 can only be bettered by spending a lot more money,

Tomic the X1 is a far better deal than the Naim and in most ways far outperforms the Naim for way less.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin dealers