Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Sources: 27" iMac with 5K Retina display, 4GHz quad-core engine with 4.4GHz turbo boost, 3TB Fusion Drive, 16GB SDRAM, OSX Yosemite, PureMusic 3.01, Tidal & Qobuz lossless streaming, COS Engineering D1 & H1, Aqua Hifi Formula, Fore Audio DAISy 1, Apple iPod Classic 160GB (AIFF), Astell& Kern AK100 modified by Red Wine Audio, Cambridge Audio iD100, Pro-Ject Dock Box S Digital, Pure i20, Questyle QP1R]
Preamplifier: Nagra Jazz, Vinnie Rossi LIO with AVT, COS Engineering D1, Wyred4Sound STP-SE Stage 2
Power & integrated amplifiers: Pass Labs XA30.8; FirstWatt SIT1; Crayon Audio CFA-1.2; Wyred4Sound mINT; Nord Acoustics One SE UP NC500MB; LinnenberG Audio Liszt
Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Codex; EnigmAcoustics Mythology 1; Boenicke Audio W5se; Zu Audio Druid V & Submission; German Physiks HRS-120; Eversound Essence
Cables: Complete loom of Zu Event; KingRex uArt, Zu and LightHarmonic LightSpeed double-header USB cables; Tombo Trøn S/PDIF; van den Hul AES/EBU; AudioQuest Diamond glass-fibre Toslink; Black Cat Cable Lupo; Ocellia OCC Silver; Titan Audio Eros power cord
Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra on all components, 5m cords to amp/s + sub
Equipment rack: Artesania Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc Krion and glass amp stands
Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators
Room: 4 x 6m with high gabled beam ceiling opening into 4 x 8m kitchen and 5 x 8m living room, hence no wall behind the listening chairs
Review component retail: £32'000 as reviewed
From Dawid Grzyb's HifiKnights report.
Lumin's room was a dimly lit cubicle minimalist to the core. Angus Leung's WestminsterLab Unum monos fit right in. Sorta. Whilst from the same metropolis as the diehard budgetarians of Clones Audio, the amps with the swish British name positioned themselves in a universe light years removed. Unibody construction excavated from 30kg of 6082-grade aircraft aluminium? Check. Gold-plated internal copper heat sinks? Check. Peek thru-hole boards with point-to-point parts? Check. Carbon-fibre damper shields? Check. Titanium screws for highest strength? Check. Peek screws to eliminate eddy currents with mounted output transistors? Check. Progressive-twist hookup wiring with variable capacitance to eliminate resonances? Check. Solid brass screws as adjustable shelf couplers? Check. Stringently matched premium parts? Check. Checked out already? If you meet the minimum £32'000/pr for the base version, you are. Otherwise, it's checkmate. This is a different dimension. What a European underground launch for an obscure luxury product. Curiosity duly piqued by such fearless extremism, I had a brief chat with Angus. It included the word 'review'. I left my card, departed, waited, then forgot that I waited. As it always does, the wheel of hifi dharma turned. A year passed.


By this year's show, the reminder had gotten more obscure still. When I showed up, Angus was elsewhere. His amps were on strictly silent display outside the cabin. Lumin were debuting their very own amp inside. The only in-room WestminsterLab presence was a name on the wall. I felt like the fly on it. I mentioned to Lumin's Li On and Morpheus that last year's talk with Angus had netted zero follow-up. Perhaps my junk-mail folder had misbehaved. I made arrangements to schedule Lumin's new duo of flagship streamer + amp for a future report, then got on with my show prowl. Upon return to Eire, Angus surfaced. "Sorry to have missed the opportunity to chat with you in Munich. Since last year, we've been busy fine-tuning the amplifier. We are only now beginning to ship. We are in close talks with NuNuDistribution for the UK. They have a pair of Unum Standard together with a loom of XLR, power and speaker cables on tour. You probably know Tony from NuNu? I am sure we can arrange something if you are interested in a review! By the way, I've also become part of the Lumin family, helping them with product concepts and hardware development."

Not knowing Tony from Adam yet but having long since read Janine Elliot's late 2016 review on HifiPig, I had a decent grasp on the Unum concept and genesis. Knowing that the platform had undergone further tweaking since merely put kerosene on my curiosity fire. Hence my affirmative reply to Angus. Why any jaded attitude would have been misplaced we'll explain louder than words could in a brief pictorial of the innards. Don't flip your wig yet; just the virtual page. Already the assets are indicative.
The XLR output daisy-chains.