LUMIN - Audiophile Network Music Player

[further]

Years ago I purchased some Audio Artistry speakers that were owned by Siegfried Linkwitz.  He had been part of Audio Artistry, but AA was no longer trading.   The speaker cables he sent me that he had been using was zip cord as well.   

[skyline]

7 hours ago, BlueSkyy said:

Good to know.  Before I sold my X1 I was contemplating trying a fuse upgrade.  I had agonized about that prospect for several years and, unfortunately, the education I received in electronics engineering convinced my I was being foolish and it won out and I didn't try it. 

 

The debate used to be about power cords, now it’s switches.

 

Most audiophiles have accepted power cords make a difference.

 

The biggest advantage for modifying the U1 mini is then I was able to use a good power cord with it. 

 

I wish I had upgraded the fuse on the previous LUMIN streamers I owned.

 

The prat, dynamics, and transparency went way up after installing an SR orange fuse in my LPS.

 

It would be fun to buy older audio gear and experiment with changing the fuse.

[BlueSkyy]

32 minutes ago, skyline said:

 

The debate used to be about power cords, now it’s switches.

 

Most audiophiles have accepted power cords make a difference.

 

The biggest advantage for modifying the U1 mini is then I was able to use a good power cord with it. 

 

I wish I had upgraded the fuse on the previous LUMIN streamers I owned.

 

The prat, dynamics, and transparency went way up after installing an SR orange fuse in my LPS.

 

It would be fun to buy older audio gear and experiment with changing the fuse.

I was never gifted with the ability to hear changes that many are able to hear sonic differences in things like fuses or contact enhancers or devices that elevate speaker cables off the floor etc.  For me I find that my mood or state of mind when I listen is as important to the listening experience as is the equipment that I am listening to.  I remember a crafty audio dealer in Oklahoma City who successfully plied me with some fine Scotch while auditioning some full range self powered (tube amps) electrostatic Acoustat Monitor 4 speakers while listening to Karla Bonoff's "Never Stop Her Heart".  To this day I am not sure if it was the sonic properties of those fabulous speakers, Karla Bonoff's voice or the single malt that caused me to shake hands, empty my bank account and leave the store with that $6,000 pair of speakers which was quite a bunch of money back in 1978.

[skyline]

1 hour ago, BlueSkyy said:

I was never gifted with the ability to hear changes that many are able to hear sonic differences in things like fuses or contact enhancers or devices that elevate speaker cables off the floor etc.  For me I find that my mood or state of mind when I listen is as important to the listening experience as is the equipment that I am listening to.

 

The upgraded fuse sound is obvious in a Lumin. It would be hard to miss.

 

The dealer you bought from was clever. We always try to recapture that mood and feeling from a good listening session.

[Ropet]

13 hours ago, BlueSkyy said:

I was never gifted with the ability to hear changes that many are able to hear sonic differences in things like fuses or contact enhancers or devices that elevate speaker cables off the floor etc.

Same for me but sometimes I’m not sure. Just in case I have bought so called hifi cables. Cables, fuses and many other tweaks usually devide users in ”believers” and ”non believers” or a group that hear (big) differences or no differences. That is a sign to me that one should really question if there is a real differences or if it is an impact of other things. Our brain is a quite sofisticated instrument to translate believes into facts, not only in hifi. A good example is the impact of conspiration theories that many translate into fact sheets if it match own personality or pre-conceptions.
 

Everything is not pure magic. The challenge is to find out what and in that case I do not think engineers have all the answers. I think one also have to put in ”consumer behaviour” in the mix as well.

[skyline]

For Lumin owners looking for a big upgrade, upgrade your cable modem to docsis 3.1.

 

It is a big step up from docsis 3.0 for audio streaming.

 

Supposedly a modem with the Broadcom chipset is the one to get, since it has lower jitter (versus Intel).

[skyline]

I went from a docsis 3.0 to 3.1, and I am in shock at the performance jump with my U1 mini.

 

I bet many people upgrade their streamers without even knowing what they’re really capable of.

 

I read docsis 3.1 handles jitter much better than 3.0, and this is very obvious when streaming audio.

[skyline]

On 10/16/2021 at 3:26 PM, BlueSkyy said:

I was never gifted with the ability to hear changes that many are able to hear sonic differences in things like fuses or contact enhancers or devices that elevate speaker cables off the floor etc. 

 

I put the stock fuse back in, and the noise was just unbelievable. 

 

Even the person listening to my stereo could hear it right away.

 

The SR orange fuse has settled in and it sounds incredible for the U1 mini.

[BlueSkyy]

Back in the day when I lived and worked in Bermuda, my old Bob Carver Phase Linear 700 power amp that was driving a pair Bose 901 Series IV speakers was prone to blowing its fuse on musical peaks and there was this time I ran out of spare fuses and I was forced to stuff a wad of aluminum foil in the fuse hole so I could get through the evening's revelries.  Truth be told I could hear no difference between the sound quality of a real fuse and the wad of Reynold's Wrap that was pressed into service that evening.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, BlueSkyy said:

Truth be told I could hear no difference between the sound quality of a real fuse and the wad of Reynold's Wrap that was pressed into service that evening

I love that story and the honesty :~)

[rodrigaj]

Regarding fuses:

I've been in this hobby since the '70s, off and on. When I jumped back in, in 2013 with the purchase of an LFD kit from a well-regarded dealer in CA, I remember him telling me, never, ever, deviate from the designed in fuses. He proceeded to tell me horror stories of wiped out audio equipment caused by designer fuses. He doesn't recommend them.

 

I've no preferences one way or another, never having tried them - I never will. If I want to change the sound of my system, my SHD with Dirac and PEQ is fully capable of doing that safely.

[airguitar]

15 minutes ago, rodrigaj said:

I've no preferences one way or another, never having tried them - I never will. If I want to change the sound of my system, my SHD with Dirac and PEQ is fully capable of doing that safely.

It's not about changing the sound - it's about improving the transparency, timing, presence, realism - those things cannot be improved with a dirac - the dirac is essentially a sophisticated tone control so will not actually improve 'transparency' for example.

[rodrigaj]

20 minutes ago, airguitar said:

the dirac is essentially a sophisticated tone control so will not actually improve 'transparency' for example.

nope.

[The Computer Audiophile]

23 minutes ago, airguitar said:

the dirac is essentially a sophisticated tone control so will not actually improve 'transparency' for example.

Not at all. 

 

 

[skyline]

5 hours ago, rodrigaj said:

Regarding fuses:

I've been in this hobby since the '70s, off and on. When I jumped back in, in 2013 with the purchase of an LFD kit from a well-regarded dealer in CA, I remember him telling me, never, ever, deviate from the designed in fuses. He proceeded to tell me horror stories of wiped out audio equipment caused by designer fuses. He doesn't recommend them.

 

I agree it is a risk. Especially with audiophile outlets, etc. Who knows what the insurance company will do to reject a claim for a fire.

 

But the difference in the stock and SR orange fuse in the Uptone LPS for my U1 mini is just mind blowing. There is no way to go back to the stock fuse. One is better off not knowing what a good fuse can do.

 

I understand now why Farad offers the orange fuse as an upgrade for their LPS.

[BlueSkyy]

I've also read that those fuses can be unidirectional.  Is that something y

9 minutes ago, skyline said:

But the difference in the stock and SR orange fuse in the Uptone LPS for my U1 mini is just mind blowing. There is no way to go back to the stock fuse. One is better off not knowing what a good fuse can do.

I've also read that the SR fuses are unidirectional and it's possible they sound better installed one way or the other.  Is that something you've found to be true?

[skyline]

5 minutes ago, BlueSkyy said:

I've also read that the SR fuses are unidirectional and it's possible they sound better installed one way or the other.  Is that something you've found to be true?

 

Yes, without a doubt. It is easy to hear when it’s in the wrong direction.

[BlueSkyy]

Thanks for that information regarding directionality.

 

I'm throwing spit balls at the moment, and although I am not proposing this as a long term solution or even a short term test, why not bypass the fuse and fuse holder altogether?  Unsolder the fuse holder and its interconnects entirely from the circuit board and in it's place, install a one-inch jumper made of solid silver wire in the 16-14 AWG range and see how it sounds?  Worst case and if Murphy's Law chose to rear its ugly head at that exact time and a fault in the device under test occurred, the 15 amp circuit breaker in the box on the wall should take care of things averting a catastrophe.

 

Of course I may be missing the whole point of a high quality fuse and looking at it from the wrong perspective.  My assumption is that a fuse like the SR fuse does a better job by not adding anything to the mix than a standard fuse but it may be that a high quality fuse is actually designed to add something that was lacking before.

[skyline]

2 minutes ago, BlueSkyy said:

Thanks for that information regarding directionality.

 

I'm throwing spit balls at the moment, and although I am not proposing this as a long term solution or even a short term test, why not bypass the fuse and fuse holder altogether?

 

Of course I may be missing the whole point of a high quality fuse and looking at it from the wrong perspective.  My assumption is that a fuse like the SR fuse does a better job by not adding anything to the mix than a standard fuse but it may be that a high quality fuse is actually designed to add something that was lacking before.

 

From what I understand, there are people who do this. 

 

I am willing to bet many people who upgraded their Lumin streamers would have been very happy just upgrading the fuse, and upgrading their modem to docsis 3.1.

 

I cannot even mention the SR and stock fuse in the same breath. The fuses must be adding something since they all sound different across brands and models.

[One and a half]

16 minutes ago, BlueSkyy said:

Thanks for that information regarding directionality.

 

I'm throwing spit balls at the moment, and although I am not proposing this as a long term solution or even a short term test, why not bypass the fuse and fuse holder altogether?  Unsolder the fuse holder and its interconnects entirely from the circuit board and in it's place, install a one-inch jumper made of solid silver wire in the 16-14 AWG range and see how it sounds?  Worst case and if Murphy's Law chose to rear its ugly head at that exact time and a fault in the device under test occurred, the 15 amp circuit breaker in the box on the wall should take care of things averting a catastrophe.

 

Of course I may be missing the whole point of a high quality fuse and looking at it from the wrong perspective.  My assumption is that a fuse like the SR fuse does a better job by not adding anything to the mix than a standard fuse but it may be that a high quality fuse is actually designed to add something that was lacking before.

Unfortunately,  the 15A or 28A fuse upstream let's through far more energy with a short circuit than the small one in the Lumin. Enough to start a fire easy. Also depends on the load of the short, it might just be a resistance and the fault will just keep on cooking with the fuse still intact. Either way, can cause a fire, liven up the frame, nasty stuff.

[One and a half]

This is my take on the Orange Fuse in a thread dedicated to discussion of the same device. Can @skyline kindly comment there instead, thank you.

[FIndingit]

You are aware that they have a Purple top of the line fuse now? 

[BlueSkyy]

God help us all!

[tomwoo]

Whoever came up with the idea that 'audiophile' fuse should improve the sound is a genius! 

[One and a half]

1 hour ago, FIndingit said:

You are aware that they have a Purple top of the line fuse now? 

That completes the triumvirate, good, better, best huh.