Lumin D2... Could it be a perceivable upgrade in sound quality?

rrwwss52 · March 14, 2020, 5:23am

Hi Peter, Some dealers sell the D2 and U1 mini with an upgraded Sbooster power supply/kit. Is the Lumin warranty still in effect with these modifications. Thanks.

wklie · March 14, 2020, 8:13am

Any Lumin units that require warranty service have to have the original parts inside and intact.

rrwwss52 · March 14, 2020, 8:25am

Thanks. Upscale Audio in California is selling SBooster PS kits in concert with the U1mini. The claim is better sound. Figured it might effect warranty, hence the question.

NipperDog · March 14, 2020, 3:49pm

Peter, would it also be advantages for those of us who are only using Qobuz and not Tidal to set ours to MQA Digital Out?

wklie · March 14, 2020, 4:08pm

Generally, if you use analog output, please set it to MQA Analog output. If you use digital output, please set it to MQA Digital output. If you do not use Tidal, do not own MQA CD, and are absolutely sure your Qobuz albums are not MQA (a few are), you may set MQA to Off (Edit: this lessens CPU cycles spent on MQA detection / authentication).

F208Frank · March 15, 2020, 1:32am

Peter per your light suggestion I have decided to let Roon do the decoding, so just wanted to confirm some settings:

If using U1 (No DAC) and setting Lumin App MQA to “Off” what setting would I put for the Roon Device Setting “MQA Capabilities”?

Options:
No MQA/Decoder Only/Renderer Only/Decoder Only/Decoder and Renderer

What would I put for the “Enable MQA Core Decoder” in the Roon Settings?

Options: Yes/No

Under Roon Settings, in what circumstance would we ever set the “Enable MQA Core Decoder” to No?

Thanks in advance Peter, loving Lumin. The system is slowly blooming, bass is booming, and the sound needs no tuning. ^_*

wklie · March 15, 2020, 2:12am

“No MQA”
Yes
Three circumstances: (1) if you hate MQA (2) or your old full MQA DAC has a bug when receiving MQA Core signal (which would require a firmware fix) (3) your setup cannot support 88.2kHz / 96 kHz (some firmware versions of Chromecast Audio had this bug)

F208Frank · March 15, 2020, 2:35am

Thanks Peter.

Colin_Johnson · March 19, 2020, 12:43pm

If the preferred setting is Renderer Only, should the “Enable MQA Core Decoder” switch be off?

wklie · March 19, 2020, 12:57pm

Must be on.

Colin_Johnson · March 19, 2020, 12:58pm

Thanks Peter

F208Frank · March 20, 2020, 1:12pm

Hi there, love the Lumin, beautifully made and sounds amazing:

When venturing into upsampling, do you reccomend to upsample via software (Roon) or upsample via hardware (Lumin Streamer)? I have the U1.
I still do not fully understand the Lumin Search Setting for “Filter” vs “Find” You have attempted to explain before but I could not understand it.

Thank you in advance!

wklie · March 20, 2020, 2:27pm

When using Roon, please disable the Lumin internal re-sampling.
Find works like find in Microsoft Word, you jump to the next entry without removing the items that do not match the search string from the screen. Filter will filter the things containing the keyword, and mismatched items will disappear. You will have to try both and see how they are different.

F208Frank · March 20, 2020, 3:01pm

Hi there Peter.

Regarding #1, I understand to disable Lumin internal re-sampling when using Roon.

I meant to ask if it is more optimal to use Roon upsampling or Lumin’s upsampling as maybe hardware upsampling may be a strain for the hardware. Which type of sampling (software or hardware) produces better sound quality would you say based on own experience and customer feedback?

wklie · March 20, 2020, 5:14pm

While SQ is subjective, Roon Core can use more sophisticated algorithms on much faster processors than the comparatively limited processors in typical non-x86 streamers.

skbe · April 16, 2020, 9:34am

Hi Peter, nice to see you again in this forum. Step by step I am more and more using Lumin, enjoying capabilities. Very recently I tried Roon and began to be a huge fan.

Why Roon does not the decoding when decoding is enabled in both Roon and Lumin?
Lumin decoding for MQA is preferred?

wklie · April 17, 2020, 2:39am

In different scenarios, Roon can choose to do the MQA Core decoding by itself or leave it to the MQA endpoint.

For Lumin products with analog outputs, you can set MQA Capabilities to Renderer Only. You’ll see Roon decode the MQA Core, while the Lumin will do the MQA Rendering.

F208Frank · April 17, 2020, 4:47am

Yes and to clarify with non dac Lumins, Lumin can only be set as renderer and allow Roon to do the core decode.

Aka in LUMIN settings MQA off.

And Roon settings Renderer Only and enable MQA.

wklie · April 17, 2020, 6:23am

That only partially makes sense for Lumin U1 and U1 MINI. The factory default is to have MQA mode on, such that Lumin still performs MQA authentication even if the decoding is left to Roon Core.

For Lumin D2 (and any Lumin with analg output) Lumin MQA setting should be left as MQA Analog output mode.

F208Frank · May 11, 2020, 11:55pm

Hi Peter hope all is well with you and the family.

Few Quick Questions:

When using Lumin app, is the Lumin app itself or the hardware doing the first MQA unfold if set to MQA digital out?
When using Roon app with U1, under MQA capabilities what exactly does “renderer only” setting do for the U1 if I do not have a MQA Dac?

Should I have this roon setting to “no MQA support” if my setting from Lumin App is “no MQA” and the roon core decoder is left as on?

My Lumin app is also suddenly unable to find my Lumin device, any advice regarding this?