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Old 06-29-2019, 02:32 PM
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AVphile AVphile is offline
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No, I chose the Lumin T2 due to its price, Lumin's greater experience in designing and building music streamer/DACs, and its employment of the ESS Sabre chips.

I purchased the Roon Nucleus+ core subsequently. Essentially, providing one uses the DACs inside the T2, there is no material difference in the sound between using the Lumin app to download a track from Tidal and using the Roon to pass that track along to the T2.

In my estimation, the T2's strength is also its weakness -- namely, its "sound" is in large part determined by the ESS Sabre 9028 DACs Lumin has used. They are exceedingly accurate in their decoding, which provides for a detailed sound; however, that focus on accuracy also results in the absence of the bloom present in analog and some competitive music streamer/DACs. Many people, myself included, like that bloom, and I confess I miss it. On the other hand, listening to a violin concerto, or a Yo-yo Ma concert streamed and converted through the T2 is amazing.

Like with many things, individual taste preferences are the most important consideration.
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