Music evening with Steve Williams: Him “smittened” by 2 things I love, and my offer to help you access your hi-fidelity music collection anytime, anywhere, anyhow!

Since 1998, I have been searching for a DAC, a way to rip my collection and to catalog/store/access it in a manner that meets my criteria.  High end audio is a means to an end – my ultimate enjoyment of music.  Having the notes touch my heart and soul is what I live for.  Much like most others, I enjoy a wide variety of music from all ends of the world, unrestricted by format and form (as long as they are well recorded).  The crackling sounds of LPs don’t bother me if they reflect the times.  To add the ability to enjoy music critically with the convenience and ease of use from digital files without sacrificing sonic quality has been a long journey but I think I have achieved it.

There were two things that stopped me before and we are offering a solution as our Luxman holiday promotion FOR FREE so please read on…

When I started this journey, the 2 things that I needed were

1. A DAC that meets my criteria and

2. the conversion of my physical collection into terabytes of information without losing anything during transition

… until Luxman sent me their first DA-06 DSD DAC as a sample a couple years ago and I figured out the best way to rip/store/catalog/retrieve my collection, I was stuck.

Steve Williams and I have known each other for a while.  Many of you may know Steve as the “oneobgyn” who has since retired from N. CA and is now living about 30 minutes from me. Last night, I was invited to a private BYOM (bring your own music) session at his house, except I did better!  Not only did I bring my Hi Rez music (mainly DSD files ripped from SACDs as well as DSD files taken from my Vinyl collection), I brought my go-to Luxman DAC to listen with.

Quoting Steve, he was “smittened” and I enjoyed that immensely myself, except, the session and conversations with him took me back to the trials and tribulations of my digital revolution journey.  I realized that in order for more people to be able to experience what Steve and I heard in our digital music wonderland last evening, I need to help!

So, here it is:

Firstly, I would like to share my personal criteria for a DAC:

1. Deliver genuine performance quality music with tone and timbre as indistinguishable from my original CDs and SACDs as possible.  When comparing the same file and CD on the Luxman D-08u SACD player in critical A/B testing sessions, we consistently found the two samples to be indistinguishable.

2.  Terrific value for the money (I don’t want “cheap” but I want “value”).  Luxman’s D-08u retails for $18,000 and the D-06 sells for $9,000.  The  Luxman’s DA-06 DSD DAC uses the same DAC as the D-06 but retails for $4,990.  That I call value!

3. Extremely musical and absolutely non-fatiguing on digital files given the duration of some of my personal and social listening sessions.  We auditioned so many DACs before Luxman’s DA-06 (and after).  At first blush, some appear to be more resolute but almost all of them we found ultimately fatiguing over a longer music listening session.

4.  Reliability and with a company to stand by the product for a long time to come.  Luxman will celebrate its 90th anniversary next year and in 2025 it’s 100th.  How many DAC makers can say that?

Now, onto the second issue of how to get started in converting an existing physical hi-rez library, here is my offer to you:  Purchase a Luxman DA-06 DSD DAC, we will work with your dealer to rip your first 150 CDs or SACDs FOR FREE (go here for more details and forms you will need).  Use offer code: 1OBGYN (inspired by Steve’s handle in forums).  Sorry, U.S. only and all bonus/promotion offer must be claimed within 60 days of purchase.

Contact us or your nearest Luxman dealer for details.

For those of you who want to find out more about Steve, visit his forum and see his forum post on our music session!