Auralic Vega 2 Vs Lumin T2

[russellbobby]

Hi all,
I am replacing an Aurender A10 that was a great one box solution after going with a Modwright full blown Oppo 105d and an Aurender N100s and all the add-ons ( Regens, LPS's, yada ,yada.)
I am looking at the Auralic which I feel is more of a dac with streaming capabilities or the Lumin which is a streamer with a dac built in. I would really like to get rid of my Micro Zotl2.0 s pre amp as the only source is the player.
The Auralic looks good because of the ladder volume control and I am assuming the Lumin uses a digital volume control that may not sound as good as a stand alone. I will miss the local storage of the A10 and will have to figure out what to do with 6tb of Hi-rez files. The Aurender uses an AKM dac that seems a lot warmer then the ESS dac found in both of these players. I like the idea of the Lumin app and not really concerned with Roon. I currently stream both Tidal and Qobuz and the lack MQA is not a deal killer.
Budget is +/- 6 k. A couple of Odyssey Kismet Monos and Persona 5f's round out the system.
Any other suggestions would be great. Just trying to keep it simple.
Thanks,
Russ
I just noticed the Lumin can accept a portable hard drive. Also mentions USB out. Is the Usb input/output configurable?

 

[Mike]

Lumin T2 gets my vote. Amazing support. Killer sound. Tremendous flexibility. Great looking too.


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[russellbobby]

Lumin T2 gets my vote. Amazing support. Killer sound. Tremendous flexibility. Great looking too.


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Thanks Mike,
Since it looks like you sell Aurender how big a step up is the T2 from the A10? Also looks like I can attach a portable USB HDD? Do you know how large of a hard drive can be attached?
Thanks,
Russ

 

[Mike]

Thanks Mike,
Since it looks like you sell Aurender how big a step up is the T2 from the A10? Also looks like I can attach a portable USB HDD? Do you know how large of a hard drive can be attached?
Thanks,
Russ

The T2 is a fantastic value. I was shocked at just how good it was.


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[wklie]

Also looks like I can attach a portable USB HDD? Do you know how large of a hard drive can be attached?

You may attach a USB HDD to Lumin for folder browsing, even a fairly large one. However, the recommended way is to host the music library on MinimServer freeware running on a NAS or a computer, especially for the size of library you have. This way browsing efficiency is much better and album / artist / genre views become available. Alternatively, our L1 5TB product can be used instead of MinimServer.

Yes, Lumin uses digital volume control. T2 has 6V rms output for XLR, which helps with getting enough volume from a passive or a direct to amp configuration. If you were used to a tube preamp sound, I'm not sure taking the tubes out of your setup will give the sound you want, but you'll likely gain resolution and transparency.

Lumin T2 (and all other models with analog output) supports full MQA decoding.

 

[russellbobby]

You may attach a USB HDD to Lumin for folder browsing, even a fairly large one. However, the recommended way is to host the music library on MinimServer freeware running on a NAS or a computer, especially for the size of library you have. This way browsing efficiency is much better and album / artist / genre views become available. Alternatively, our L1 5TB product can be used instead of MinimServer.

Yes, Lumin uses digital volume control. T2 has 6V rms output for XLR, which helps with getting enough volume from a passive or a direct to amp configuration. If you were used to a tube preamp sound, I'm not sure taking the tubes out of your setup will give the sound you want, but you'll likely gain resolution and transparency.

Lumin T2 (and all other models with analog output) supports full MQA decoding.

Thanks for the info. I am going to go both ways with the Lumin T2 and my pre vs the Auralic Vega2 as a stand-alone. Money wise works out about the same.