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Bricasti M5 or Lumin U1 Mini or ?

I recently made some upgrades to my desktop setup, which sadly gets more use due to a downstairs tenant's bedroom being directly below my larger "living room", which currently serves as the TV watching area. I'd love to use the larger room as my main listening room, but unfortunately that wouldn't be great for the tenant, and certainly would not pass muster with wife. The room in question is a small, oddly shaped spare bedroom/office. Spending the majority of my music listening time in there has really caused me to appreciate and enjoy the nearfield listening experience. Originally, I was hoping to build a dedicated music tiny house/mancave/shed in the yard, but have put that on hold until lumber prices come to back down to earth. So for now, I have a pair of Harbeth P3ESR XD speakers driven by a Hegel H120 Amp, connected to an RME-2 DAC FS via Balanced XLR. I listen to physical cd's on an Audiolab 6000CDT Transport , stream with Qobuz, through a Small Green Computer Roon Core, going through a EtherREGEN network switch. At the moment my streamer is a Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra. One of the reasons I bought the Hegel was on the promise of it being Roon Ready, but that hasn't happened in forever, so I have everything going through the RME as far as DAC duties are concerned. I love the Hegel and want to keep it, but I'm having my doubts on it ever being Roon ready. So I'd like to bring the streamer up to par with the rest of the system, and am looking at either the Bricasti M5 or the Lumin U1 Mini. I listen to 99% instrumental electric & acoustic jazz with some classical chamber music thrown in. As you can see, I'm not big fan of vocals. Obviously, either choice has me using the RME Dac. I'd love to get opinions/advice on which of these streamers is the better choice, or is there something else in this price range that is even better. Roon Ready is a must. Thanks for your time & energy.         
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Showing 1 response by adg101

adg101
1,059 posts
 
I’ve only tried one streamer which is what I own, but I do question statements that streamers don’t make a difference, as wouldn’t the claim be true with CDP and Transports which in my experience they do. With the BS Vault 2 which I own, it’s easy to hear the difference between Qobuz or Tidal to the same CD I’ve ripped to the internal hard drive, which every time the hard drive copy sounds better which definitely has me wanting to hear if there are streamers that are closer to say CD without spending silly money?

Glad this discussion started as I’m looking at both the Lumin and Bricasti. I also have a RME ADI fs2 DAC with a Teddy Pardo PS which really helped the Bluesound, which is a great product for the money but I feel it’s the weakest link in my system.

I’d have to hear the U1 Mini, but I’m sure I’d have to forgo the switch power supply for a linear supply so now you’re up to the cost of the M5 which already has a LPS. Haven’t subscribed to Roon so that would be an extra expense whereas not required on the Lumin. The Lumin does sound easier to navigate out of the box, but wouldn’t the Bricasti with Roon be as easy?
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