Lumin U1 Mini or D2

avtexan

New member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
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2
Location
Houston
I recently started enjoying hi res music. I have been streaming Tidal & Qobuz on a Roon Server and that has worked great.

I don’t currently have any hi res files. For now all content will be streams from Tidal & Qobuz.

I have a dedicated Home Theater room that has a Marantz AV8801 as the prepro, B&K Ref amps and Triad LCR’s. The room had been professionally calibrated.

I have gone back and forth if I want my streamer to include a DAC as I will likely be using the DSP in the AV8801. Not sure if the outboard DAC is a good fit with what would be a digital to analog to digital & back to analog signal path. I most likely will go digital out into the digital coax of the AV8801.

I guess a downside to no DAC is I miss the second unfold of the MQA streams. Not sure if that’s a big deal as most of the masters I have played have been below 24/96.

After looking at different product lines I am leaning towards the Lumin gear. The U1 Mini seems to be a great fit for me but the D2 is just slightly more and could probably be had for a very similar price.

My Questions:

1) Should I get the D2 for flexibility down the road?

2) As just streamers are the Mini and the D2 the same or is the mini better a just a streamer?

3) In a setup like mine is there a sizeable advantage to stepping up to the U1 or T2?

4) Not to complicate things but any other gear I should be looking at?
 
Welcome to AS! As we discussed yesterday, I would go with the U1 mini or U1 and use your existing DAC in your Marantz because you have your system dialed in with DSP and D—>A—>D—>A is not ideal.


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A big vote for the Lumin U1 or U1 mini. Lumin streamers are awesome. Going the U1 route doesn’t lock you into a DAC if you want to make a change down the road.
 
I guess a downside to no DAC is I miss the second unfold of the MQA streams. Not sure if that’s a big deal as most of the masters I have played have been below 24/96.

I might well be almost ready to buy the Lumin U1 as well. What i don't quite understand is your MQA comment. Can someone who understands MQA please let me know if I use the U1 USB out into my CH Precision C1 dac whether it will make the full use of MQA on tidal or not?

Thanks
 
MQA digital output is restricted to 88.2kHz or 96kHz after MQA Core decoding (first unfold) as per requirements from MQA Ltd. You need a MQA certified player/DAC with analog output to have full MQA decoding. However, if you're pleased with your current DAC and have no plan to change to a MQA DAC/player, then 88.2/96kHz MQA output from Lumin U1 (MINI) is good enough.
 
My U1 Mini came in and I hooked it up last night. Very excited! Thanks for the help everyone and thanks Mike for the great customer service. It was a pleasure doing business with you.

I played with the LUMIN app but Roon works great. Sound was great but it did improve over the couple of hours I was using it.

What’s the recommendation as on as far as break in period? How long?
 
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