[I.Greyhound Fan]

I went with a friend to 2 local mom and pop shops to listen to a Rogue Audio Magnum Cronos v3 and some streaming DAC's.

We compared a Lumin D2, Lumin D3 and a Bluesound Node.  Amp was the Rogue and speakers were Klipsch Hersey's which my friend owns although his are from the 1980's. 

The D3 sounded the best with the D2 coming in second and the Node last.  It was no contest.  The 2 Lumin's sounded cleaner, more detailed and had wider and deeper sound stages.  The D3 sounded noticeably better than the D2.  The sound stage was wider, there was more detail and resolution.  Bass was tighter.  The D2 sounded almost muddy in comparison.  I was not impressed with the BS Node which sounded grainy in comparison to the Lumin's.

My friend got a great deal.  He bought the Rogue for $1000 off since it was used but the Remote had not even been taken out of its packing so it may not have even been used.  And then, $2350 for the Lumin D3.

[newzooreview]

Very cool.

The Bluesound also fares poorly in another careful comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtl1edjqNAI

However, in both cases the Bluesound is much lower cost than the preferred streamer, so at least in this case, you get more when you spend more.

They did not evaluate the Lumin since they were testing in the sub-$1000 price range, but they do have some interesting measurements on the effect of power supplies on streamers in a couple of their other videos.

It seems as if you were testing the Lumins and the Bluesound and streamers + DAC feeding the Magnum Cronos. I've been looking into streamers for my headphone setup, but the Lumin does not have a USB output for my DAC/amp, which only takes USB in. For the moment I am using an iFi Zen streamer, and I would not recommend it. The software is terrible, and it produces dropouts even when using a very good ethernet connection. It also has a Roon exclusive mode that disables USB digital output. This is acknowledged as a bug by tech support, and in the recent August firmware update the bug was not addressed. Even a Raspberry Pi running Ropiee can send audio out via USB.

The D3 looks very compelling as an all-in-one streamer + DAC. And it looks terrific aesthetically as well.

I do like how Lumin says that the D3 supports "DSD Lossless." I guess if Lumin sold sugar they would label the bag "gluten free."

[Phil A]

V

It seems as if you were testing the Lumins and the Bluesound and streamers + DAC feeding the Magnum Cronos. I've been looking into streamers for my headphone setup, but the Lumin does not have a USB output for my DAC/amp, which only takes USB in.

Lumin makes a U2 mini ( https://www.luminmusic.com/lumin-u2-mini.html)  for DAC owners (it has no internal DAC and USB out).  I'm not sure about the U2 mini vs. the old U1 mini, but the U1 mini was essentially a D2 without the DAC (and there was a $300 list price difference between the units).

I have a DAC I use in the main system.  I current have a Lumin U2 (and previously had a U1).

[newzooreview]

Thanks! Yes, I was just looking at the Lumin website, and the U2 has a USB digital output. The U2 Mini also has a USB digital output capability, but the same USB port can be used for connecting a hard drive, apparently, while on the U2 there is a dedicated USB digital output port plus two USB hard drive ports.

Lumin is one of those companies that thinks the prices of their stuff should be kept secret, but it looks as if the U2 is $5,000 and the U2 Mini is $2,400, at least judging by one site: https://destinationhifi.com/collections/lumin

I might look into the U2 Mini.

[Phil A]

Thanks! Yes, I was just looking at the Lumin website, and the U2 has a USB digital output. The U2 Mini also has a USB digital output capability, but the same USB port can be used for connecting a hard drive, apparently, while on the U2 there is a dedicated USB digital output port plus two USB hard drive ports.

Lumin is one of those companies that thinks the prices of their stuff should be kept secret, but it looks as if the U2 is $5,000 and the U2 Mini is $2,400, at least judging by one site: https://destinationhifi.com/collections/lumin

I might look into the U2 Mini.

Some additional information.

The connection of a USB hard drive only allows the use of browsing by folder structure on Lumin Music Servers.  The complete online manual is here - https://www.luminmusic.com/manual/index.html     The USB connection is explained here - https://www.luminmusic.com/manual/cabling.html

Lumin recommends use of a NAS device (and Synology or QNAP - I use a 7 year old two bay Synology) and Minimserver installed (either on the NAS or one's computer) - https://minimserver.com/     In lieu of the that, Lumin makes an L2 (Library 2) and before that they had an L1.  Those are configured hard drives which give all the functionality of the use of Minimserver but are pricey.

For those who may want more of of a plug and play, I'd recommend Aurender Music Servers.  I found a dealer demo earlier this year of a discontinued Aurender N100h for a friend.  They come with built in storage.  As long as one doesn't exceed the storage in the unit it is plug and play.  Once one does, then one needs to run Aurender Media Manager on a PC and like the Minimserver issue, many may find it is not something they wish to bother with.  Aurender's tend to be more pricey.

I have a secondary 2-channel system (doesn't see much use) and it just has a DAC with volume control and an amp and a fanless mini-PC running JRiver.  Set-up properly it runs quite well (and controlled via a tablet or smart phone) but one of course has to deal with Windows (and I have JRiver installed on my main Windows 10 PC with the use of Vanatoo powered speakers which include an integrated DAC.  My DAC in the secondary system has an analog input and I have a modded Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram Generator connected to the DAC passing through an Oppo 103D and with the Oppo app I can play files up to single rate DSD.  I wouldn't mind getting off of Windows but for the very small amount the secondary system gets used, I can't justify spending over a certain amount (but I do look at hifishark from time to time).

So like everything else there are pros and cons (and not everyone will prefer one over the other).  Lumin allows one to use other third programs to control their music server and has features like Leedh Volume Processing (https://www.processing-leedh.com/) and re-sampling (e.g. if your DAC doesn't support certain formats).

[newzooreview]

Thank you.

I have my music in a Synology NAS, so I would connect the Lumin by ethernet and use it as a Roon endpoint.

I was rambling about the USB on the Lumin since I would use the USB digital out to my headphone DAC/amp.

[Phil A]

Thank you.

I have my music in a Synology NAS, so I would connect the Lumin by ethernet and use it as a Roon endpoint.

I was rambling about the USB on the Lumin since I would use the USB digital out to my headphone DAC/amp.

I have Minimserver installed on the NAS.  They have both a free and paid version.  I have the free version and since I just use my NAS (probably sometime within the next year I'll be replacing my drives as they are getting full and are at this point 7.5 years old) for music, I use an old version of their (Synology) OS which works fine.  I've also used the DS Audio App (but not in the main system) which comes with Synology and works fine too. 

I prefer my DAC (I use an EMM Labs DAC 2X, Version 2) and many seem to like the old Lumin servers with Wolfson DACs (vs. the ESS used in current models).  When Lumin came out with the U2, I sold my U1 (which I bought lightly used probably about 6-7 years back (give or take) and bought the U2.  My DAC upsamples (no controls to enable or disable) everything to 8x DSD.  I really like the Leedh volume processing (it will convert everything to 352.8 PCM to do the processing) and then sending it to the DAC.  The Lumin U2 allows me to convert quad DSD to (352.8 PCM) and then my DAC upsamples it and it sounds better vs. straight DSD (I have a friend with a Lumin U1 who just got a Denafrips DAC and now uses Leedh as well) in my set-up.

So the U2 or the U2 mini are for people who like their current DACs and don't want an integrated DAC.  It allows the flexibility of getting another DAC down the road (although I'm quite happy with mine).  Several years back I used a Hegel H190 in my secondary 2-channel system and got it via a big heavy amp I had in the main system even up for a dealer demo here - https://seattlehifi.com/demos/  and when my friend got his U1, he got them from the same people.