LUMIN - Audiophile Network Music Player

[wklie]

I actually googled for this subject on fuse before, and here's what I gathered:

 

- There is no accepted theory on why it changes the sound (if you believe it does).  One hypothesis suggests (less) vibration - some fuses are filled with special kinds of liquid.

 

- At least one audio manufacturer said in public that they investigated it, heard a difference without finding an explanation, then altered the type of fuse they put in their products.

 

- The inexpensive fuse from a particular brand used by audio manufacturers from a certain country is also sold in retail as audiophile fuse with an over 20x mark up in price.

 

- At least one fuse manufacturer had published some types of measurements, but they do not directly correlate to SQ, in the same way that many popular measurements do not correlate to subjective SQ.

 

- I had the resistance of a standard fuse vs an audiophile fuse (not any brand mentioned here) measured, and found a 10x difference.  I am very sure any impedance in AC will impact power amp dynamics (that's why using a power conditioner harms amp dynamics).  Unfortunately the coworker sitting behind me refused to believe my measurement.  After I told him I asked our repair staff to measure it instead of myself doing it, he blamed the digital multimeter our repair staff use as not being expensive enough.

 

- The same coworker was asked by others to do a SQ evaluation for a new brand of audio fuse that's even more expensive than the brand in the prior posts.  He heard a difference but in a bad way.  He hated it and said it screwed up the sonic balance like turning up the treble.

[skyline]

1 hour ago, wklie said:

- The same coworker was asked by others to do a SQ evaluation for a new brand of audio fuse that's even more expensive than the brand in the prior posts.  He heard a difference but in a bad way.  He hated it and said it screwed up the sonic balance like turning up the treble.

 

Fuses can take a long time to settle in. The SR orange fuse really does take 200 hours to break in.

 

When I first installed it, I did not like the tonality at all, but I could already hear a big difference. When I put the stock fuse back, it sounded broken.

 

Having said that, I have never heard the U1 mini in stock configuration. I went the LPS route and have never looked back. 

 

I think it is a fantastic streamer with an LPS, a good fuse, and power cord/power conditioning.

[skyline]

I have to add that I run an etherREGEN (with a Farad Super 3) before the U1 mini.

 

I think many people would be happy for a long time with this setup.

 

The etherREGEN is a bonafide bargain in high end audio.

 

It just makes it so much easier to be drawn into the music.

[Ropet]

13 hours ago, skyline said:

It is easy to hear when it’s in the wrong direction.

In Europe curren direction changes 50 times per second and I presume the flow must be the same in both direction, or?

 

If fuses can make a clear and big sound difference to the better it should be a quick fix to upgrade all hifi products in the factory with a minimal engineering resource. Better sounding and possibly better reviews. What is holding them back?

[vintageaxeman]

1 hour ago, Ropet said:

f fuses can make a clear and big sound difference to the better it should be a quick fix to upgrade all hifi products in the factory with a minimal engineering resource. Better sounding and possibly better reviews. What is holding them back?

As has been mentioned before, fuses have to be certified before they can be adopted by manufacturers. Without that certification, very few manufacturers would take the risk of legal action following a fire.

 

It's the same with any component, including mains cables. That's why most manufacturers simply provide an ordinary 'kettle lead'.

 

 

[BlueSkyy]

47 minutes ago, vintageaxeman said:

As has been mentioned before, fuses have to be certified before they can be adopted by manufacturers. Without that certification, very few manufacturers would take the risk of legal action following a fire.

 

It's the same with any component, including mains cables. That's why most manufacturers simply provide an ordinary 'kettle lead'.

 

 

I don't know how it is in the E.U., but not every part of every piece of electronic equipment sold here in the US needs to be UL approved or certified by some other organization.  I suspect it's more a cost/benefit analysis thing and wanting to price their products competitively especially when it comes to including high cost "tweaks" like cables and fuses.  Besides the manufacturers know to let the end user purchase the "tweaks" that are near and dear to their heart in the first place.

 

 

[rodrigaj]

The more practical issue is can a warranty claim be made if a designer fuse fails to break when / if a fault occurs. Let's not lose sight of the purpose of a fuse.

[BlueSkyy]

12 minutes ago, rodrigaj said:

The more practical issue is can a warranty claim be made if a designer fuse fails to break when / if a fault occurs. Let's not lose sight of the purpose of a fuse.

The $64,000 (USD) question.

 

Also, never test a unit that is blowing fuses with the box of designer fuses you have sitting in your parts bin.

[skyline]

10 hours ago, Ropet said:

In Europe curren direction changes 50 times per second and I presume the flow must be the same in both direction, or?

 

I have read this too, but I had the fuse the wrong way, and I knew something was really off.

 

At least we can talk about this on the Lumin thread.

 

The moderator on the Naim forum deletes all posts about after market fuses.

 

It would be interesting to hear feedback from other Lumin owners who have upgraded their fuse.

[BlueSkyy]

9 minutes ago, skyline said:

 

I have read this too, but I had the fuse the wrong way, and I knew something was really off.

 

It's a fact that alternating current electricity reverses the directional flow of electrons either 50 times a second, as in the case of Europe and some other countries, or 60 times a second as is the case of the US and, possibly, Canada, etc,  So unless the fuse is capable of some pretty miraculous acrobatics within the fuse holder it's going to find itself inserted the wrong way half the time.

 

Have you done a test with a trusted assistant?  Maybe have him or her swap out the direction of the fuse twenty times and see if you can get the direction correct a reasonably high percentage of the time and, maybe even, swap out an esoteric fuse with a common "plebian" fuse twenty times and see how well you can predict it.

 

I'd be interested in the results of a test like that.

[skyline]

3 hours ago, BlueSkyy said:

Have you done a test with a trusted assistant?  Maybe have him or her swap out the direction of the fuse twenty times and see if you can get the direction correct a reasonably high percentage of the time and, maybe even, swap out an esoteric fuse with a common "plebian" fuse twenty times and see how well you can predict it.

 

I'd be interested in the results of a test like that.

 

Fortunately, I don’t need to test this.

 

Even though the fuse being in the wrong direction was only for the LPS for the U1 mini, it is easily audible. I know because I won’t listen to my stereo.

 

A similar effect is Tidal would sometimes drop the sound quality setting below CD quality on my account. I didn’t know they had done this, but I found myself not listening to my stereo.

 

Then I checked the sound quality setting, and lo and behold it was lower than CD quality.

[BlueSkyy]

1 hour ago, skyline said:

 

Fortunately, I don’t need to test this.

 

But would you be willing to sit for the test?

[skyline]

38 minutes ago, BlueSkyy said:

But would you be willing to sit for the test?

 

Yes I would.

 

I remember putting the stock fuse back into the LPS powering the U1 mini, and it was so noisy.  The SR orange fuse had made the stock fuse sound broken.

[BlueSkyy]

Please let us know the results of the double blind test.

[BlueSkyy]

On 10/22/2021 at 6:26 PM, One and a half said:

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.

I should have heed this good advice earlier.  I apologize for feeding into this mess on the Lumin discussion (but I was having so much fun)!

[musicguy]

just subscribed to qobuz.   

 

I cant enter my login into my lumin u1 mini.   

I know my log on is good   tried it on a imac and pc and iphone.   

 

Lumin u1 mini. doest work

 

 

[wklie]

@musicguy

 

What error did you receive?

 

Please change your password to alphanumeric.

 

If that does not work, please use Lumin app to do a factory reset of the U1 MINI (in the About function of U1 MINI), then retry.

[musicguy]

  Qobuz requires a certain kind of pass word.   I cant do a all letter or numbers password

 

 

 

I have done two factory resets.    I know the u1 is connected and gets an internet signal my Tunein automatically logged in and plays music.  I go to log into qobuz and all i get is a qobuz is logging in.  Then nothing.

 

I havd tried an iphone, ipad to log in to my qobuz account on my lumin.  Nothing

 

I get no error code of any kind.  

 

[wklie]

Please send your Qobuz account username, e-mail address, and password to me in private.  I'll test your account.  Then you can change the password later.

[skyline]

I finally got around to listening to one of my favorite albums via the USB input. WAV file downloaded from Qobuz.

 

I was surprised to see that it was not good as Qobuz streaming.

 

In fact, I very much prefer Qobuz streaming.

 

Also, I have been trying a Shunyata Alpha ethernet cable before the U1 mini, and it changes the sound drastically.

 

It’s easy to hear the filter in this cable.

[al210]

I thought I ask the Lumin pros here for some advice.
I would like to get a transport to replace my mac mini/Audirvana/MicroRendu setup.
It will feed my Chord Cutest DAC - Rogue RP-1 Preamp and then to my Rogue Magnum II tube amp.
My speakers are Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grande SE and a Rel S510 sub.

My question: is my system high end enough to benefit from the extra cost of the U1 over the U1 mini?
I listen to mostly Jazz, smooth jazz type stuff. I have a library of redbook all the way up to DSD and stream Qobuz.

Thank you

[m5sime]

I moved from a Rendu setup to U1 Mini and was very happy. I also had a Mutec re-clocker and found little use for it after the upgrade. My own view is a piece of kit is only worth paying what you think the value is.. surely start with a U1 mini and see how you like it, get a loaner etc. note I ended up also auditioning usb cables with this setup change and was surprised to hear subtle but good differences and ended up having to step up to the tellurium Q vs others I auditioned. 

[al210]

So I got a good deal on an U1 streamer and ordered it.

 

I have a WD PR4100 NAS. The DLNA server on it is Twonky Server. Will this work or will I need to run Minimserver?

Minimserver don't run on Western Digital NAS.

 

 

[wklie]

Please try Twonky then.

[skyline]

On 11/6/2021 at 3:39 PM, al210 said:

My question: is my system high end enough to benefit from the extra cost of the U1 over the U1 mini?
I listen to mostly Jazz, smooth jazz type stuff. I have a library of redbook all the way up to DSD and stream Qobuz.

 

A U1 mini upgraded with a Farad Super 3 or Uptone JS-2.

 

You will be very happy.

 

For all Lumin owners out there who have upgraded their Lumins with an LPS, the DC cable is worth your attention.

 

I have been running the stock Belden DC cable for years, and finally upgraded to the Ghent audio NRG for my U1 mini.

 

It was like I moved up to the most expensive Lumin streamer.

 

How can upgrading the stock DC cable have that much of an effect, I have no idea.