Article: Lumin U1 Streaming Transport Review

[wklie]

9 hours ago, André Gosselin said:

Regarding the "mandatory use" of the Lumin app to drive the U1, it would be interesting to know if, when the unit is used as a UPnP/DLNA renderer, a non proprietary app like BubbleUPnP can drive it. Could you test that ?

 

The use of Lumin app is not mandatory for playback control - it is only required for setting change and firmware upgrade.  Lumin is OpenHome, UPnP compliant and Roon Ready, so you may use Linn Kazoo, Bubble DS Next, Aurdirvana, JRiver, etc. or Roon for playback control.

 

It is even possible to use Audirvana or Roon to upsample music to DSD512 to be played by Lumin X1, T2 or U1 (with a Linux native DSD512 compatible USB DAC) via network.

[wklie]

11 hours ago, NOMBEDES said:

Why call it a transport?   #confused

 

We call our Ethernet-connected DAC with analog outputs "network music players".

 

We call our Ethernet-connected streamer with digital outputs only "network music transport".  To me a transport means "digital output only".

[wklie]

1 hour ago, emcdade said:

Interesting what you noted about the imaging popping out more in front of the speakers when called for.

 

I notice the same thing with the T+A DAC 8 DSD when ran in 512 DSD mode.  The soundstage expands in every direction, including forward, with its single bit DSD converter vs. it's traditional PCM Dac.

 

Is this because it's pulling more detailed and accurate phase information out of the recording?  Or is it just some sort of distortion?

 

I personally believe clock jitter can affect imaging.

[wklie]

3 hours ago, gmgraves said:

In fact video should be more sensitive to changing bits and clock timing than audio.

 

In a videophile forum, I've read people there report significant improvement to SQ (typically ATMOS / TrueHD / DTS HD-MA, etc.) and comparatively minor improvement to picture quality with LPS mods of the power supplies in video players, which output bits via HDMI.

 

If this debate continues, someone will bring up expectation bias and blind test quickly.  Rather than talking about own products (which would sound like hard selling), let me report that we actually carried out a blind test of a leading USB cleaner product popular in this forum.  To our surprise, our expert listeners actually got 100% right in the blind test in identifying when the USB cleaner is used and when it is not.  (I'll try not to say further on this, please pardon my lack of response in advance.)

[wklie]

6 hours ago, Cgrossi said:

Hello, I understand that Lumin U1 is capable of DSD128
upsampling. I have an T+A DAC 8 DSD that is capable of DSD 512 upsampling. My question is: Can I upsample to DSD 512 with my DAC and Roon?

 

No.  As of December 2018, T+A DAC8 does not support Linux native DSD and therefore is not compatible.  There is a beta firmware (for the Amanero USB board inside) that supports it but T+A said it was not mature enough:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-does-not-detect-my-t-a-devices/36167/29?u=wklie

 

Right now, the only way to send DSD512 to your particular DAC is to run Roon on Windows, and connect your DAC to it via USB.

 

If you connect it to any Linux streamers including Lumin U1 (MINI) or some other streamers mentioned in this thread, it would be limited to DSD128 via DoP.

[wklie]

58 minutes ago, One and a half said:

DAC I use works best with coax rather than USB, Yggdrasil, Berkerley DACs top of my head, sound better than USB.  I let Roon convert DSD256 (highest rate file I own) to PCM either 192 or 176.4 (can't remember exactly) direct to the U1 and it passes through x 1 to the DAC.

 

If DSD to PCM has to be done due to the DAC accepting PCM only from an AES / SPDIF / Toslink input, from a mathematical point of view, I would suggest converting it to 176.4kHz instead of 192kHz.   DSD64 is 2822400 Hz, divided by 176400 Hz it gives an integer value 16.  If divided by 192000 Hz it results in 14.7.  So if a DAC plays 176.4kHz and 192khz equally well, I think the former may be better.  An exception would be a DAC (hypothetically) hardware only has a base clock which is a multiple of 48kHz, with a 44.1kHz derived from the 48kHz, then one will have to listen to find out which sounds better.

 

As for DSD512, the story is this: Linux based streamers such as Lumin U1 (MINI) and several other streamers popular in this forum require a Linux native DSD compatible USB DAC for DSD512 to be played.  Recent XMOS based DAC and recent Esoteric models do.  Those DAC using Amanero USB board running older stable firmware and SaviAudio USB chip do not support native DSD256 or native DSD512 with Linux.  Users of such DAC are limited to using Windows USB (with a required driver, typically ASIO) as a source if they desire DSD512 playback.

 

For DSD256, it has another possible condition of working even if a DAC is not Linux native DSD compatible - if it supports DoP256 it will still work with Lumin U1 (MINI) - however, not all DSD256 DAC support DoP256 - only some do.

[wklie]

5 hours ago, barrows said:

BTW, there is firmware for the Amanero USB receiver which is now stable with DSD 256, native DSD, from a Linux based renderer, i use it every day.

 

Which version?  1099c?  Thanks.

 

Reading this https://github.com/lintweaker/xmos-native-dsd/issues/12

Based on the posts there, it seems that some people still have various issues, or not able to get DSD512 to play perfectly.