Lumin U1 and MQA

A

Audioguru1

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Sep 6, 2017
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Greetings All,

I have recently purchased a Lumin U1 audiophile streamer. I am pairing it with a Mcintosh D1100 DAC. I must say that I am pleasantly surprised and even shocked by the high degree of performance and musicality of this combination. I am streaming Tidal Hifi through the U1. Does anyone know when MQA decoding will be available on the U1?

Thanks,

Andrew
 
Lumin U1 is undergoing MQA certification. It'll take some time before it can be officially released.
 
Since the Lumin U1 is a pure streamer without a built in DAC, I understand that its support of MQA will be limited to MQA Core decoding. When connected to a DAC which can act as an MQA Renderer the resulting output will be fully decoded MQA, or if connected to a non-MQA DAC (like your McIntosh) you would still benefit from MQA Core's first unfolding.
 
audio.bill - thanks for your feedback. I think my Mac D1100 DAC should be able to get up to the maximum 98Khz sampling rate of the MQA first unfolding available through the Lumin software decoding.
 
Hi Andrew - welcome to the forum. I'm sure that's a great combination. Congrats.

Mike
 
Mike - thank you. I truly can't believe my ears in just how good the Lumin U1/D1100 combination sounds. I don't have much use for my redbook CD (or SACD!) collection anymore...
 
Audioguru1 said:
Mike - thank you. I truly can't believe my ears in just how good the Lumin U1/D1100 combination sounds. I don't have much use for my redbook CD (or SACD!) collection anymore...
Click to expand...

That's great! What input are you using?
 
So I now have the beta version of the MQA Lumin U1 firmware upgrade. All I can say is "WOW". When I stream an MQA masters album from Tidal HiFi, this has sonically taken my system to a new higher level of musicality, dynamic breath, and transparency. The sound I'm hearing reminds me a lot of how my "old" collection of DVD-Audio discs sounded back in the day. From a sonic perspective I loved that format and it's amazing that I can now get that same quality or better streamed! It's also super nice and to see my Mac D1100 Dac displaying the best possible 96khz sampling rate for the first MQA unfold done by the Lumin software. Congratulations to Lumin on the excellent work so far!IMG_20170908_221845.jpg
 
Hello Folks
I have updated the Lumin U1 for mqa support
Some things to share :
My system for listening the mqa via tidal is as follows :
Lumin U1 is connected to Chord Dave via AES EBU . The U1 is connected to my internet box via RJ45 + network filter . The U1 is also connected to Melco N1A via Ethernet RJ45 + filter . The melco stores my music
The Lumin + Melco +DAVE are filtered via the excellent PLIXIR BAC (conditionner)
Listening is done via Focal Elear earphone via DAVE
Album tested is Marvin Gaye " What's going on "
44.1 flac, and 196 flac are stored on the Melco
Tidal streams 44.1 , and the 196 versions
Conclusions (FOR ME)
1. The flac in the Melco and the one from Tidal MQA , sounds the same (both 44.1 and 196)
2. The HD version sounds better to my ears than the CD version
I have been a MQA septic , because I like to buy my music
However , it's more practical to have Tidal (albeit being dependant on internet)
Lastly , I should state that LUMIN has been of tremendous support , and the Lumin app on IOS works really good
When I see the difficulty of having DSD files , and the easiness to have MQA high res files , I guess that mqa will be a good streaming format (even if there are loads of septics like me)
EXCELLENT support from wklie and Lumin
Cheers
 
Zaheer said:
Hello Folks
I have updated the Lumin U1 for mqa support
Some things to share :
My system for listening the mqa via tidal is as follows :
Lumin U1 is connected to Chord Dave via AES EBU . The U1 is connected to my internet box via RJ45 + network filter . The U1 is also connected to Melco N1A via Ethernet RJ45 + filter . The melco stores my music
The Lumin + Melco +DAVE are filtered via the excellent PLIXIR BAC (conditionner)
Listening is done via Focal Elear earphone via DAVE
Album tested is Marvin Gaye " What's going on "
44.1 flac, and 196 flac are stored on the Melco
Tidal streams 44.1 , and the 196 versions
Conclusions (FOR ME)
1. The flac in the Melco and the one from Tidal MQA , sounds the same (both 44.1 and 196)
2. The HD version sounds better to my ears than the CD version
I have been a MQA septic , because I like to buy my music
However , it's more practical to have Tidal (albeit being dependant on internet)
Lastly , I should state that LUMIN has been of tremendous support , and the Lumin app on IOS works really good
When I see the difficulty of having DSD files , and the easiness to have MQA high res files , I guess that mqa will be a good streaming format (even if there are loads of septics like me)
EXCELLENT support from wklie and Lumin
Cheers
Click to expand...

Hey Zaheer - Great setup and glad to hear you are enjoying the sound quality of the U1 with MQA files. Question: What is the purpose of the network filter that you mention? Does the filter provide an audible improvement to the sound quality? Can you please elaborate more. Thanks.
 
The new public U1 firmware does not include MQA support. It fixes an occasional delay issue with playback of music from fidata Twonky server. U1 is still undergoing MQA certification.
 
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