I have Aesthetix gear, a Romulus CD/DAC (standard version) and Atlas/Calypso amplifiers (both Eclipse versions) and ML Montis speakers.
By adding a Lumin U1 Mini in front of my Romulus CD/DAC I could easily compare the actual CD quality with the streaming sound quality of the ripped version of the exact same disc.
My network streaming setup at the moment:
Qnap NAS (Roon core) -> Supra CAT 8 cable - > Etherregen Switch -> Lumun U1 Mini -> Siltech CA USB cable-> DAC…..
Initially I just added the Lumin U1 mini without the Etherregen and I was using cheaper cables too.
At that point I was not satisfied with result, the pure CD sounded better. The streaming version was too harsh to my taste and sounded more “digital” compare to the Aesthethix itself.
As I did not have the budget to replace the U1 Mini with the U1 or any other high end streamer I decided to upgrade the network transport step by step.
First I added a Kenneth Lau “Signature” LPS to the U1 mini, later I bought the Etherregen switch and finally put Quadraspire Qplus reference supports under the Lumin.
The combination of these 3 resulted a much better streaming experience. Now it is clearly superior to the pure CD version, the harshness has completely gone, it is very fluid and has more resolution, I hear more details. I am very happy with the final result, although at the end I spent more on the “tweaking” than on the original Lumin itself :)
I am sure there are far better CD players than mine, and those sound much better than a Lumin U1 Mini.
But with today’s computer technology I am convinced that even the best CD transport can be “bested” with a high end streamer, comparing them in the same system…so I am selling all my ripped SACD’s now, no turning back for me :)