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Blue sound Node 2 vs Lumin D1

I am looking for a streamer with a built in DAC.  I have backed off my original plan to purchase the Aurender A10 and am looking for a less expensive option.  The Bluesound and Lumin players do essentially the same thing  BTW, my immediate interest is streaming Tidal, so MQA is a possible plus for both players.  The obvious difference between $500 for the Node 2 and $2000 for the Lumin distinguishes the two players.  Does that price difference translate to a significant difference in performance/sound quality? Both are within my budget but I would rather not spend the additional $1500 unless the improvement is fairly dramatic.  I would really like to hear from anyone who has had both players in their system and have had an opportunity to compare them.
randyhat

Showing 1 response by zek4u

zek4u
45 posts
 
These devices are not all the same. I’ve had many: Dell netbook, Apple airport, sotm tx-USBexp with its own psu and others. You should have heard how bad the Dell netbook sounded. It’s garbage in, garbage out. I say, start with clean bits. I now have a Micro Rendu and have an Aries Mini on the way. It really amounts to the vendors USB/Motherboard implementation. These things pick up EMI/RFI and need good jitter performance or you will play the add on game.

My guess is that a Lumen/Aurender/MR/SOtM sMS-200 will beat a Aries Mini or a Blue Sound because of their motherboard/USB implementation. It’s also system dependent and what you might be hearing is colorization.
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