Lumin u1 or Aurender N10

I have owned both the Lumin U1 and Aurender N10.  I don’t have either but I thought the Lumin sounded better if memory serves.  When i had the N10 and my current PSAudio Directstream DAC I could hear no difference in sound when playing the same song to each and switching back and forth between the Directstream Bridge and the Directstream USB input, which was how the N10 was connected.

I use Aurender N100 now and I owned Lumin T2 for a few weeks. Didn’t like Lumin at all, it’s overly warm like it tries hard to be ‘musical’. I had RME DAC at that time and I had to use the equalizer to make it sound listenable but I gave up and sold it. Aurender is much more neutral and better in every way. I know that some people like Lumin but it’s definitely not for me. 

I think I will lean towards the Aurender as my DAC ( Emmlabs dac2x v2) is already warm and musical sounding and they are paired with my Kef reference 5 speakers that are solid on bass neutral in the midrange and soft on the top end. Aurender neutrality and decay looks more logic to go for my system's synergy.

I also have the T2. I found that it took close to a month before it sounded good.. I thought I made a mistake on the purchase after 2 weeks. I have now had it 2 years and think it sounds great.  Would love to have the X1 but it is 3x the price.

With Aurender you can attach hard drives but with Lumin you either need a NAS or a USB drive.