Under $3K streaming dac suggestions, Roon Ready?

I'm curious as well

Over the last few months, I did get a chance to test out a few Streamer/DACs for comparison, the Meridian 218, Lumin D2, Lumin T2, and Mytek Brooklyn+. These were connected to a Luxman 509X (using AQ WEL RCA interconnects) and ML 11A speakers.

All except the Brooklyn+ were both Streamer + DAC and worked extremely well with Roon. I used the Lumin T2’s digital/USB out to the Brooklyn+ in for comparison which worked really well.

- Meridian 218 was clear, crisp yet smooth, and surprising musical, though lacked a bit of body and soundstage. Most Meridian products unfortunately are limited to 24/96 through network, although MQA is fully supported at higher resolution through the analog out. Also no DSD and RAAT isn’t supported so you cannot group the 218 with other Roon RAAT enabled devices (wasn’t an issue for me). If you are in the market for a lower priced DAC/streamer and aren’t into DSD or higher resolution formats, it’s worth a listen. Since MQA and the Roon team spun out of Meridian there is great support built in. MQA was fantastic.
- Lumin D2, very smooth, warm, though felt the soundstage, air between instruments, and openness was lacking a tad compared to the others. Definitely a DAC/streamer that you can listen to over a long period of time without fatigue. Also, extremely simple to setup and never had a hiccup. Lumin and Roon work together hand-in-hand. Awesome experience.
- Lumin T2, very open, clear, crisp, yet smooth with a wide soundstage. Simply put the best all-in-one you can get in my opinion if you are into a more neutral and transparent sound. Also, it incorporates some high end features as a standalone streamer and DAC, supporting DSD512. I used Roon to upconvert to DSD512 and it worked and sounded great. Also, the digital out support is amazing with full featured USB and digital outs that works seamlessly with Roon and the Lumin app.
- Mytek Brooklyn+, unfortunately I couldn’t get the bridge to do a full apples-to-apples comparison, but I had both the Mytek and T2 at the same time so ran USB out from the T2 to Brooklyn+, worked awesome. Overall, I was really surprised at how warm and musical the Mytek was. The sound was "meatier" and had more substance than the T2, but lacked the soundstage and instrument separation. One issue I had, which I could not get over, was that you have to manually turn off the MQA filter to listen to PCM and turn it back on when listening to MQA. For non-MQA PCM, I was hoping the MQA filter would sound as good as the other native filters, but in my opinion it did not.

Although the T2 is a bit higher on the price point if you can score a deal on one sub $4K, closer to the $3K budget (which is feasible), I would recommend it UNLESS you have a very transparent system.

In terms of Bel Canto, I have heard their streamer has inferior DAC side than their standalone DAC (DAC 2.7). On the higher end side, I have heard their Black EX pre/DAC and it was fantastic, but it better be for it’s very high price point.

EDIT:  I should have noted that this is just my opinion, everyone's ears and systems are different.

eziggy82

I enjoyed your review of the 4 Streamer/DACs. I need help with your comment about the Lumin T2, “ would recommend it UNLESS you have a very transparent system”.  I have the following: Pass Labs x150.8 amp, Martin Logan Expression ESL 13A electrostatic speakers, and Marantz AV7703 preamp (whose Dac I will bypass with a new streamer/dac). This could be classified as a transparent system; I am not sure how transparent “very transparent” is but it might fit this category.

I have a few questions:
Why would a more neutral and transparent sounding Lumin T2 be a disadvantage over the other dacs?
What is the meaning of “too transparent”, not your words but mine?
If less transparent is an advantage, what would your second choice DAC be and why?

For anyone else reading this inquiry, I would love to hear your experienced input. I am in the market for any do-it-all streamer/dac/MQA for less than $6000. Feel free to give any opinion and why.

Thanks to all.

+1 on stretching your budget and getting the T2 (and with an external power supply it jumps up a tad more)..a serious bit of gear.

An inexpensive way (not with poor sound) would be to get a Schiit dac and plug into that something from an iPad, computer, etc. https://www.schiit.com

@firstonetallguy, I should have added “neutral” and transparent.  The T2 is on the neutral side, so if your system is neutral then it may be too much of the same thing, which some people
may like. Totally a matter of preference.

It doesn’t seem like your system is super neutral so the T2 may be a good fit.  The other thing to mention is that I compared the T2 to my Marantz 8805 and found the Marantz to be warmer, a littler fuller sounding, and had a tad wider soundstage though less accurate (using HEOS and Tidal).  The T2 had higher resolution, was crisper, and was more accurate.  Marantz in general is on the warmer side.  Though the 8805 has a different architecture than the 7703, the 8805 has dedicated HD boards.

If you do end up keeping the Marantz as your preamp, then make sure you use the multi-channel inputs since those are the only ones that pass a direct untouched signal.  PM if you want to discuss further.