DirectStream, Lumin U1 Mini and Roon - Is the Lumin Superfluous?

Audio Components DACs
1

I recently added a Roon Nucleus to my Lumin U1 Mini / DirectStream DAC setup for its impressive user interface. With the addition of the Roon, is the Lumin U1 Mini, which I used for streaming, “doing anything”? In other words, is there any benefit to keeping the Lumin U1 Mini in the chain of components feeding the DirecStream DAC?

Thanks for the guidance!

2

Welcome!

You’ll get the same bits and the same Roon UI, but probably different overall sound quality from the Nucleus vs the Lumin due to differences in electrical noise and stability.

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I use a ROON Rock on a fanless i7NUC as a server and it works very well.

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hi mrtiticus, merry Christmas and welcome. Nice components you’ve got there! In a nutshell, yes, you can ditch your Lumin Mini, but I wouldn’t. Here’s some thoughts:

  1. Roon Nucleus (Roon Core) is a music server, and is designed to ‘serve’ music (from many locations) to a Roon End point.

  2. Roon Nucleus can be connected directly to the Direct Stream DAC, and in essence, act as a Roon Core and Endpoint. In this case, you could remove your Lumin.

  3. If your Direct Stream DAC has the "Bridge II’ card installed, the DAC itself can act as a Roon endpoint - and you can remove your Lumin.

  4. If the DAC does not have BridgeII, and your Nucleus is not connected directly to the DAC, then YES, the Lumin is acting as it’s designed - as a dedicated streamer - receiving music files from a server (Nucleus).

Whether the Lumin sounds better (SQ wise) vs. the Bridge II vs. Nucleus plugged directly into the DAC, is - of course - up to the listener to decide. And is all part of the fun!! Good luck.

TJ

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5

TJ, Merry Christmas and thank you for this very clear explanation. I do not have the Bridge II installed in the DirectStream and the Roon is feeding the Lumin. You’re so right about what I need to do - an A/B comparison Roon vs. Lumin as a streamer to see if I can hear a difference. Thanks again!

Best,
Michael

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You are very welcome Michael. And I wish I could try that experiment too - I’ve been oogling over the Lumin mini for about a year now :).

Please let us know what you discover.

cheers.

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I’m interested in your findings, but for somewhat selfish reasons because I’m interested in buying a U1 mini.

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