2. digital
  3. 184427-170518

Lumin U2 mini vs Mac laptop sound test

I compared and performed a blind test for a listening friend of the following streamer set ups.

1. Router hard wire into Lumin U2 then AES into DAC

2. Wifi into Mac air, out of Mac air via cheap USB cables from my printer and an adapter to go from USB C to whatever USB termination goes into the DAC.

Conclusion.  My friend could not hear a diff.  I "think" I hear a difference but not confident I could pass a blind test. 

Rest of system:

SPL Director DAC/Preamp

SPL S1200 power amp

Kirmuss speaker cables 

Audio Solutions Figure M

I did this for knowledge and fun.  Please let me know any thoughts but I can not see how spending a lot of money for a streamer makes any sound difference. 

John

Love this stuff

johnah5

Showing 1 response by riccitone

riccitone
216 posts
 

That is a head scratcher. Could say a lot about your dac…I’ve found a difference between inputs on even decent dacs I’ve tried (my own dac vs others $500-$1k range). I upgraded from a decent basic rpi based streamer transport (Allo Digione) to a better designed and optimized rpi based transport (Pi2design Mercury streamer) which fires out I2s, coax, AES, and optical as options - even simultaneously.

Huge difference/improvement with coax, haven’t had the opportunity to try the other outputs yet. My dac is a Toppings D70s. I’d love to say your pre/dac and amp are such stars that it supersedes the quality of signal, however:

a.) I am subject to enormous bias as I own an SPL Elector Pre and I melt over its abilities (big crush on this pre and surely anything made by SPL)

b.) Most find that source tends to dictate much of the resulting sound

 

 

 

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