Lumin U2 vs Aurender N200

@john1629 

I have an Innuos Pulse feeding the DA2 in my McIntosh C2700. Also, the Pulse feeds my Aries Certat Helene DAC via USB. The Innuos software is easy to use and extremely reliable. 

Regarding sound quality, the DA2 is incredible from a cost/performance ratio. I think it can compete with anything up to $3.5K. However, as others have cautioned, I would not spend a mint on a streamer until you have a DAC commensurate in performance. The sound quality improvement you question will come from a better DAC, not a streamer. 

Lumin dealer disclaimer.....

I've had a few Lumin U2s come through so far and have been throughly impressed with the unit.  Unlike mentioned above, the Lumin sound is in no way "brittle".  

I've never heard your Dac, so can't really say how that combo would sound.  But I love the U2 with the Bel Canto and Line Mag dacs that I have here. 

@lalitk +1 Absolutely, yes. I really couldn't imagine listening to a digital system without a master clock.

I just purchased the Lumin U2 mini. So far, I’ve been pretty impressed - replaced a Bryston. It’s definitely worth an audition. Like others, I wanted a separate streamer and the Lumin U2 was at the top of my list. That said, I don’t have as nice of a system as many members on this site. I’m only running a Conrad Johnson ET3SE preamp, CJ MV60SE amp, and Lampizator Amber 3 DAC. I recently added a pair of B&W 805 D3 speakers to the system. 

@wsrrsw wrote: P.S.

This month’s Sterophile raves and raves about the iFi Audio NEO Stream. It’s $1300! 

Once again, a reason to not trust everything that you read. Especially by a professional reviewer.  I demoed a NEO Stream and ended up returning it because it sounded no better than the (noisy) PS Audio Bridge II card. Then when the Lumin U2 released, I wanted to see if I had gotten to the best possible digital SQ with my fiber optic LAN. The U2 proved that a streamer can make a massive difference in SQ when compared against one another. It was a larger impact to overall SQ than when I upgraded to the current Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp. That says a lot and I'm certainly a believer now that streamers matter. A lot.