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Why is Lumin so expensive?

Novak

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Hi all
Is there any good objective reason why Lumin is that expensive? When looking at inside the box (e.g. In T2), the box seems mostly empty (ess 9028). I am curious about what our technical experts think about these products.
Screenshot_20191208-231954_Chrome.jpg
 

pozz

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Can't know without measuring it. It's expensive, too, so hopefully it performs well.
 
OP
Novak

Novak

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Absolutely, that s for sure.
What about the build of material? It is sold 5k...
 

gene_stl

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It is expensive because they are in business to make a lot of easy money.
At Axpona I had dinner next to someone involved with them who was regaling me with stories about their sister company who makes cables and that teflon insulation sounds different than other plastic materials. My response was "Really?? , Fascinating!" Their cables regardless of what insulation was utilized were unconscionably expensive so it isn't surprising to me that their equipment is overpriced too. Just my ever so humble opinion.
 

pozz

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Absolutely, that s for sure.
What about the build of material? It is sold 5k...
Looks fairly neat. SMPS in its own housing, no meandering wire paths. Others will know better than I will.
 

murraycamp

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At Axpona I had dinner next to someone involved with them who was regaling me with stories about their sister company who makes cables and that teflon insulation sounds different than other plastic materials.

Yikes.
 

Fleurrose

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[QUOTE = "pozz, post: 282576, membre: 7752"] Je ne peux pas le savoir sans le mesurer. C'est cher aussi, donc j'espère qu'il fonctionne bien. usa today protonmail[/ QUOTE]
C'est super, j'essaye
 
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pozz

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cjf

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At those prices one should expect to see a nice air gap on the board between L/R Output Channels and another separating the Inputs from both Outputs.

What a sham!
 

TimW

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I had a conversation/argument with a Lumin rep on the Roon forum. They were talking about why an optical LAN connection was much better than an electrical connection because of electrical isolation or something silly like that. I asked them why we shouldn't just use wifi if isolation from the network is so important. They informed me that wifi is not adequate for high fidelity music reproduction :facepalm:
 

BWPhil

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Hi, I am new to ASR. Anybody has any user experiences with the Lumin products? I have the similar question about Lumin cost vs. measured performance. Looking at the T2, and price is very high.
 

gene_stl

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Very fancy cases can be custom manufactured in Italy, China and Germany to name some that I have noticed.
Extremely large, elaborate , high end "looking", massive cases can be had for less than $1000. More expensive than anything that needs to go into the case. CNC makes one off and low volume case buying and selling a reasonable proposition.
But cases don't contribute much to the performance. They are primarily part of the "audio jewelry" axis of categorization.

The question to ask might be how does it compare in price to gear that does the same thing. Maybe RME or Hilo Lynx or Okto Research.
These are examples of products that have measured well here and don't seem (to me ) to be unreasonably priced.

I am not a socialist when it comes to audio equipment pricing. If someone takes the trouble to engineer , build and sell an excellent product, they deserve to profit from it. The question for the potential buyer is how much bang are you getting for your buck. Is your hard earned dollar going to pay for actual hardware and production cost or is it going for slick advertising, high dealer margins and also greedy margins for the manufacturer.

I used to like to read sales and marketing materials when I worked in the retail end of the industry. On the one hand, the companies tried to tell the consumer how great their gear was. The same companies, sent the dealer and their sales reps , three ring binders with tables to show how much margin they would make selling at various price points. Of course ones sales commission sometimes was affected by these tables. This affected my respect for some brands that were clearly just intended to cause money flow. I found the experience distasteful and I still occasionally get into arguments with people about particular brands especially if they bought them once upon a time, somewhere. There were and probably still are brands that give the consumer a better value for their dollar. It does not appear to me that Lumin falls into this category.
 

Mars2k

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I have owned a Lumin D2 for a while and can tell you its worth every penny I paid. Bullet proof absolutely fantastic sound. No bench testing al la Amir but just offloading my streaming duties from my AV proc and/or Oppo udp this product was orders of magnitude better, pick your parameter. Based on those observations if my financial reality supported the purchase of a T2 I would not hesitate.
 

Zensō

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Audio products above a certain price point are marketed as luxury goods. I’d say this product falls into that category. In that realm, higher prices are a feature that increases perceived quality, regardless of performance. If you’re concerned about the value in a product like this, you’re probably shopping in the wrong price category. Certainly, there are far less expensive products that perform as well, if not better.
 
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