Streamers: Lumin U2 vrs Aurender N200

I don't care for upsampling within the U2. Roon does a far better job via Muse. The main reason is that Lumin only sends half of it's max supported bitrate for some reason. My Ayre QX-5 will accept 768/705.6 and send the signal directly to the DAC chip, thus bypassing Ayre's digital filters. And this sounds even better than sending it original sampling rates. I also use the optical input on the U2 and my LAN is all-fiber. Just a very short copper run out of my NUC running ROCK. The rest of the path (some 50') remains fiber all the way into the U2. 

@markmuse cool. Forgot to ask…

how many hours on U2?
what USB cable are you using?

what dac?

@audphile1 1 month on the U2, mostly running 24/7. Should be stable by now. 

Currently an Audio Envy USB and power cord on the U2. I was using a DH Labs USB. And I have an older USB that came with an Orchid DAC I had a few years ago, but haven't tried it yet. 

PS Audio DSD Mk2. I reloaded the original firmware but have reverted back to the current firmware. Synergistic Blue power cord.

@markmuse I’m familiar with DH Labs USB. It’s not bad but isn’t on the level of your front end. I’m using AQ Diamond and preciously had Audience AU24se+ and both are far superior to DH Labs. More refined and spacious sound with better bass and dynamics. Something to keep in back pocket for the next item to try of copper Ethernet doesn’t cure the issue. 

@audphile1 OK, switched to a straight copper feed. There is a difference. A little more apparent detail, but also more edge to the sound, particularly in the presence region. Precisely the opposite of what I want. I think with a less revealing system this would be a good thing. At this point I don't know what else to do beside replacing it with the Aurender.