Thank you.
Yes…I actually have 2 units of 840E one in silver and one in black (I just got for a good deal) its a very robust unit. While I could go direct from the Lumin to the Active crossovers (below the Lumin) that drive the 4 channels per L&R speakers I sometimes want to have options to play from the Soekris DAM1021/RPi DIY option next to the Lumin, plus a Phono pre thats not in place right now. Other benefit of the 840E is trigger out and bass management if I want it.
Actually looking at another Lumin D1/2 for the other setup now too.
If you want make a try… Grab a XLR to RCA cable
Listen the difference, then make your choice… 
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Interesting. I would have thought that such an approach might negate the gains of the xls, but always good to experiment. Thank you. Any cable you recommend?
XLR Gain is going to be compensated, but as described above, in my setup the sound is much more focused and detailed (top end).
I’m using a cheap Stagg cable, it is enough to unveil the behaviour. Then if it works for you a Neutrik/Mogami combo should be fine.
Like this one
Many thanks indeed.
If you’re going down this rabbit hole, as I did, you may find it helpful to have a read of this tech note - it turns out that there’s a lot more to it than a simple cable suggests.
Yep, definitely…
Fascinating. Always learning on this forum. Thank you.
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Just to be clear, when using Roon with Lumin streamers, set the Lumin settings of MQA Mode to “Off” correct? When doing this, on the Lumin streamer’s front display no longer displays MQA.
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Also when using the Lumin App, do we set the “MQA Mode” back to Digital Out?
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Some users have mentioned that the Lumin App sounds better with Lumin streamers, and the Lumin Staff also has agreed with this. Why would this be the case from a technical stand point?
Thank you.
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Incorrect. If you use the Lumin analog outputs, please keep Lumin app setting to MQA Analog output mode. In Roon setting for Lumin, you may choose either Renderer Only (preferred) or Decoder and Renderer. If you use the Lumin analog outputs and you set MQA Mode to Off, you lose the MQA rendering for sound quality and the MQA display.
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If and only if you use the BNC output of Lumin D2. (Or any digital output on any other Lumin models).
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I guess whoever said that merely reported they heard some users’ opinion that they like one over the other. I have some speculation / hypothesis for why the same bits can sound different, but I’d rather not discuss it here.
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I have the U1, I should have mentioned.
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Sorry I should have clarified, I am using the coaxial, in this case should I then set the Lumin settings of MQA Mode to “Off” when using the Roon App?
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So if using coaxial, when using the Lumin App, set the “MQA Mode” back to Digital Out correct?
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Do you personally prefer the Roon App or the Lumin App for the Lumin Streamers?
Thank you for the detailed responses, appreciate it more than you can imagine!
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Regardless of what app you use for playback (Roon or Lumin), the standard recommendation for digital output is to set Lumin MQA Mode to MQA Digital Out. However, in case of Roon, you may also choose to set Lumin MQA Mode to Off if you do not care about the MQA display on Lumin front panel. The resulting bits are the same, but with the Off setting you free some CPU cycles used for MQA authentication on Lumin.
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When using Lumin app, you need to keep the MQA mode as MQA Digital output, for MQA Core decoding inside Lumin (instead of Roon Core), and to inform Lumin player hardware to get the 24-bit MQA music (if available) instead of 16-bit music from Tidal service.
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Outside of compliance testing and system level problem diagnosis, I’m much less familiar with the actual usage.
Thank you for your time, appreciate it Peter.
Some interesting findings:
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When setting the Lumin App settings to “Digital Out” the streamer shows 192khz despite my DAC not being a MQA DAC, on the streamer it shows 192khz, on Roon it shows 192khz, but my DAC shows 96 khz.
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When setting the Lumin App settings to “MQA Off” the streamer shows 96khz, DAC shows 96khz, and the Roon app shows 96khz.
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Just to be sure, the U1 does not have the 2nd unfold for MQA since it has no DAC correct? With that said it seems as though #2 would be the best option to use when using Roon. I am not trying to correct anyone, I am just trying to do the best I can to navigate this as I have OCD and want to do things “proper”
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I find it a little weirded out that for option one the streamer and roon are showing incorrectly that the 2nd unfold is taking place since my DAC is not a MQA DAC. The DAC displays 96khz with settings from option 1.
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Furthermore, when using the Lumin App, when on Digital Out setting, the streamer and the Lumin App both show 192khz and my DAC shows 96khz, this confused me as I know my DAC is not MQA compliant, which is why I want to clarify if the U1 somehow has the full unfold somehow without the built in DAC.
Please advise and sorry to bother!
Some MQA basics first. MQA Ltd. requires the MQA master sample rate to be shown, i.e. the sample rate of the master from which the music is produced from. This is different from the digital music stream sample rate, and different from the actual DAC playback (rendering) sample rate. MQA Core (first unfold) is always 88.2kHz or 96kHz regardless of the MQA (master) sample rate.
The 192kHz is the master sample rate. The 96kHz is the MQA Core sample rate. Everything is correct.
With Lumin MQA authentication, you’ll see 192kHz master sample in the front panel as required by MQA Ltd., even if it is outputting 96kHz MQA Core sample rate.
I acknowledge that these multiple sample rates are super confusing.
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So in a nutshell for Roon users, setting the Lumin settings to" Digital Out" and “MQA Off” yields the same exact sound quality correct?
Yes, same bits. The MQA Digital out setting invokes MQA authentication in the Lumin hardware (for front panel display), the MQA Off setting does not.
Thanks once again, Lumin and this community is very lucky to have you.
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I’d like to give even more credit to Peter as he is also active in other forums for his Lumin products.
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