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Luxsin X9 Smart Stereo DAC & Preamp

Rate this smart DAC, HP Amp and Preamp:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 3 1.2%

  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 17 7.0%

  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 91 37.6%

  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 131 54.1%
  • Total voters
    242
PenguinMusic said:
Then raise the prices (justified or not : name it "Ultra" in the smartphone marketing or "Master Edition" in the Hi-Fi realm) up to the point where you notice that you can't sell for more.
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The differential here is a few hundred dollars. It is not the playbook of US companies who would price this product at $10,000. We are still dealing with very good value here compared to those. Yet all the trimmings are there with very heavy chassis, fancy components, high resolution front panel, etc.

Ultimately though, this is their business to conduct. I don't think it is productive for us to complain about that. Let them sell, or not sell. We benefit by having another choice in the market.
 
amirm said:
The differential here is a few hundred dollars. It is not the playbook of US companies who would price this product at $10,000. We are still dealing with very good value here compared to those. Yet all the trimmings are there with very heavy chassis, fancy components, high resolution front panel, etc.

Ultimately though, this is their business to conduct. I don't think it is productive for us to complain about that. Let them sell, or not sell. We benefit by having another choice in the market.
Click to expand...
Hi Amirm,

Sorry to have expressed a negative opinion about a brand that you think does not deserve it.

To avoid all "unproductive complains" about their marketing and rebranding, I have earased my post.

Regards.
 
amirm said:
The differential here is a few hundred dollars. It is not the playbook of US companies who would price this product at $10,000. We are still dealing with very good value here compared to those. Yet all the trimmings are there with very heavy chassis, fancy components, high resolution front panel, etc.

Ultimately though, this is their business to conduct. I don't think it is productive for us to complain about that. Let them sell, or not sell. We benefit by having another choice in the market.
Click to expand...
Well said..
 
amirm said:
The differential here is a few hundred dollars. It is not the playbook of US companies who would price this product at $10,000. We are still dealing with very good value here compared to those. Yet all the trimmings are there with very heavy chassis, fancy components, high resolution front panel, etc.

Ultimately though, this is their business to conduct. I don't think it is productive for us to complain about that. Let them sell, or not sell. We benefit by having another choice in the market.
Click to expand...

Agreed, although the difference in power output from your measurements and the official specs seem somewhat questionable, is it possible that Luxsin are giving peak power numbers in the specs sheet? I know amps don't always measure quite what is stated in the spec sheet but that is a big difference, similar to what iFi went through a while back with Goldensound and the iFi diablo which ultimately led to iFi changing how they display their specs in power output.

Luxin did say to me on another forum that they was reluctant about giving out the full power output specs before you did your review, perhaps they wanted it checked first.
 
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I use a Topping E30 DAC with a Topping Pre90 preamp and was planning to buy a sub and integrate it with DLBC.
So I was thinking of replacing my two current devices with a miniDSP Flex or an RME ADI-2.
Both devices lack analog volume control.
miniDSP has no onboard PEQ (not a big deal for me, just noting it), and its DAC performance is solid but not top-tier.
RME has no dedicated sub out.

Luxsin X9 really ticks all my boxes in a one-box solution and stands out as a fascinating product. Keep in mind I even looked at pricier options than the miniDSP and RME, and none combined everything Luxsin offers in a single unit.

The only possible dealbreaker for me is its preamp SINAD, since my sources are digital. The drop from my current 130 dB Pre90 to the X9’s 87 dB is likely inaudible at my usual listening volumes. But a 42 dB SINAD gap, hinting at ~15–20 times more noise/distortion, is something hard to swallow, and I’m not thrilled about it.
 
Regarding the difference in power output measurement differing largely to the specs provided my Luxsin, could it be related to,

"After testing, I noticed a menu item related to automatic gain. Apparently the unit measures the impedance of the headphone and adjusts the gain appropriately. I did not try to test this."

Would be nice to get some clarification on this, what gain setting was used? also did you use XLR or 4.4?
 
I think Luxsin have done a incredible job getting this to market for $1000 .

Everyone has to eat, reading some of these comments its as if some members think all audio manufacturers should live on rain water , rice and soybeans .

Jeez Louise!

Why is there such degradation when EQ is applied? Or have I miss read a graph ( entirely possible) .

Thanks for the review Amirm , another interesting product iv never of known existed. I really like its aesthetic design, oozes quality imo .
 
Thomas Savage said:
I think Luxsin have done a incredible job getting this to market for $1000 .

Everyone has to eat, reading some of these comments its as if some members think all audio manufacturers should live on rain water , rice and soybeans .

Jeez Louise!

Why is there such degradation when EQ is applied? Or have I miss read a graph ( entirely possible) .

Thanks for the review Amirm , another interesting product iv never of known existed. I really like its aesthetic design, oozes quality imo .
Click to expand...
This is exactly it. I was in the demo room of an AV store at the weekend auditioning a pair of HD800S which I have never heard before so always wanted to and now finally did it. The amp they used was the recent Cambridge Audio EXA100, a big integrated amp BUT I didn't feel like it looked or felt like a £2000 amp. The CA marketing makes some bold claims about how it is tuned in London and represents the pinnacle of audio fidelity from the ESS chips but again I didn't think I was hearing anything remarkable that sounded on the same level as to what I am hearing back at home on my Arya Stealth and X9 setup.

It could well be that the EXA100 has a crap headphone stage of the amp I don't know as no specs for it are available, but even still, the whole thing did not represent to my hands and eyes and ears something that is £2000 whereas the X9 absolutely does at its price point given all of the features and high res display animation and how hefty the unit and controls feel.

I think people just see words on a page, notice the brand they have never heard of before and think it must price itself low as a "newcomer" as it has no right to be higher priced against all the big brands that market based on name badge primarily and so on.
 
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It's still not representative of £2000 of hardware though that's my point. It's priced high because of the name and marketing, the X9 is priced around where it should be because of its quality and features. The internals are laid out nicely using high quality parts as well.

If the X9 had a power amp stage for (edit- passive) speakers and cost £1200 it would wipe the floor with the EXA100 all day long and almost certainly plenty of others.
 
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The preamp part comes to me for 1000USD below average.
 
So the drop in preamp performance was also with digital sources?? I thought it was with analog only. Makes me look at it a little differently.

Adjustable slopes & filters for mains/subwoofers is a huge feature to be added with PEQ.

No color in black is a bummer
 
robbiekhan said:
It's still not representative of £2000 of hardware though that's my point. It's priced high because of the name and marketing, the X9 is priced around where it should be because of its quality and features. The internals are laid out nicely using high quality parts as well.

If the X9 had a power amp stage for (edit- passive) speakers and cost £1200 it would wipe the floor with the EXA100 all day long and almost certainly plenty of others.
Click to expand...

You're still trying to compare two very different components, also you're making an awful lot of unfounded assumptions.

Enjoy your X9, I'm sure it's better than anything thing else on the planet even in the hypothetical universe where it has a power amp stage.
 
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