Lumin U2 vs Aurender N200

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. 

I have not listened to the Aurender units, but understand them to be high quality. My Mac MB100 was decent, but continually a source of issues.  I gave up on it and purchased a new Lumin U2 (not a mini).  The external power supply makes a significant difference in SQ. My DAC is an Aesthetix Romulus Ecplise with Telefunken NOS tubes which produces a nice analog sound (my preference). The quality of the DAC will make or break the SQ of any new streamer, IMO. A high-quality USB connection made a noticeable difference in SQ over single ended and digital coax.

Other observations- yes @lordmelton - the plate above interconnects is a PITA. The Lumin remote app takes some practice, although I don't know how it compares to the Aurender interface. Lumin has timely firmware updates, which install seamlessly.  I connect with both Tidal & Quboz, SQ between the two on my Lumin is comparable.

Good luck