Hi @Hudson I am using an after market power cable. Thanks.
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HI @Flathead2 I ended up keeping the sBooster. I think after a couple of weeks of burn in, the brightness seems to calm down a little bit (or maybe my ears have adjusted to the new sound). I still find the new sound with sBooster more forward than the stock power supply of the T2, but t it’s really a matter of preferences. Some people prefer that, I think I prefer it to be a little more laid back. On the plus side, the sBooster seems to improve on the bass. I found it has a little more slam. Also there seems to be more space between instruments.
All in all, I can’t say I’m super happy with this upgrade, but I’m accepting the trade offs. The problem with this upgrade is that it is destructive. You have to cut one of the wires in order to install the new power supply. It also makes it very difficult to do a proper A/B test, which I’ve been wanting to do, just haven’t found the appetite to go thru this process again. Will update this post if I ever get around to it. Thanks.
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Thank you K_C for your response. Much appreciated. I am somewhat embarrassed but happy to report that as of today the sound quality has improved. It has smoothed out, less sibilance, fuller bass and overall all frequency balance. I am able to enjoy listening to some of my favorite cello and violin music as well as vocals. Nonetheless for my situation I am thinking Peter may be on to something and I may try his suggestion regarding the Emotiva CMX-2. Should I do so I will of course report back. Thank you again!
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Thank you Peter. I may very well try this out as I have read other comments regarding the Emotiva CMX-2 and have been wondering if DC-offset is a problem. I am not hearing transformer hum in the sBooster nor in the Teradak LPS I have connected to the Netgear Nighthawk CAX80 modem/router. Nonetheless I would like to try the Emotiva CMX-2 and should I do so will report back. Thank you again.
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Hudson, this is a good point. As a believer in cables I am finding myself asleep at the wheel here. I am using the Oyaide Black Mamba 2 but I have a couple of other brands tucked away in my audio closet I will pull out to test. Thanks for the wake up.
Hi Peter, I got one question regarding the Lumin D2, I have this D2 connected to my McIntosh C52 preamp using a digital coaxial cable. But When I stream songs with 24bit 192khz from Tidal, My C52 shows 96khz. I wonder why it is not 192khz? Is Lumin D2 only support up to 96khz?
Or is there a settings I need to do from the Lumin app ?
I believe I have Digital out enabled. MQA mode set to digital out.
And the rest of the settings I try DSD set to Bitstream, PCM all Native, 96khz, 88.2, 48 44.1 either Native or DSD
but I still can’t get to 192khz showing on C52.
Please help me Peter
This is not the ideal connection for C52.
If you play Tidal MQA 192kHz, it’s delivered in 48kHz, MQA Core decoded (first unfold) to 96kHz to any digital output from a certified MQA transport or Roon Core.
You have to have a MQA DAC in order for the DAC side display of 192kHz with MQA rendering. McIntosh DAC is not, but Lumin built-in DAC is.
Please connect D2 analog XLR to the C52 balanced input.
Set Lumin MQA Mode to Analog output.
You will get full MQA decoding this way with Lumin analog output, not with digital output.
I hope you will find it sounds better this way.
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Peter, Glad to hear from you.
I basically tried your way connect D2 analog XLR to C52 and set Lumin MQA to Analog output.
The C52 won’t display the frequency as 96 or 192…etc. But the funny thing is when I switched it to digital coaxial. The C52 will show the number… This is how it got my curiosity.
Also , I noticed the sound from XLR analog connection is not as sharp as using the digital coaxial. Would it be the DAC from the C52 better than the Lumin D2?
When using XLR Analog connection to get full MQA decode. The sound is little flat.
I did the comparison by switching the input back and forth. And my girlfriend who doesn’t know much about music , she noticed that the C52 DAC has more clarity.
What do you think about that ?
This is normal. You won’t see a sample rate (for digital audio) with analog input.
If you like the digital connection better, you may keep using it. Don’t worry about the absence of MQA 192kHz display in the C52.
Thanks Peter.
Hi, I am nearing the end of my 60-day D2 trial and a couple of things that I haven’t figured out are troubling me:
- Simple one first: How do you play a full Qobuz or Tidal playlist rather than an individual song from the Lumin app? I want to check if that app has the same issue as the Roon app in the scenario below.
- I have the Lumin hooked up via RCA to my PrimaLuna integrated amp that I use for two channel and it works well. But I also want to connect the D2 to my Denon AVR when I want more than two channel or I want to play in other zones. The Denon doesn’t have XLR, so I tried connecting the Lumin with a coax digital to BNC cable from WireWorld seen here: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y29SSLT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I’ve tried it on both coax digital inputs on the Denon and the same thing happens: Songs will be playing just fine and then all of a sudden the sound cuts out about 99% of the way (I can hear a whisper through the two front speakers but this might be residue from home theater bypass.) Sometimes it does this after a song or two, sometimes several, sometimes at the start of one (and if I skip that song sometimes the sound comes back, sometimes not), sometimes in the middle of a song. My Roon Core is running on a laptop from across the room where I have 1 GB WiFi. I’ve tried connecting it to same Ethernet switch as the D2 and sometimes it goes longer without cutting out but sometimes not. Any ideas? - I have connected via AirPlay to the Denon, but that defeats the purpose of the D2, right?
- How much quality is lost with AirPlay?
- I am considering returning the D2 and buying a Nucleus to use as the Core and streamer. For those who’ve used it that way, how good is the Core as a streamer?
Thanks in advance for any advice on my long-winded missive.
Please tap and HOLD the album art to add the whole album to playlist.
If BNC output is silent, you may be playing MQA music or DSD music.
Also make sure volume leveling is turned off in Roon.
Then this is not caused by MQA format or DSD format, as format-related silence is for the whole track. When that happens, please physically disconnect and reconnect the coaxial cable.
I’d prefer AirPlay to D2 instead.
This way you’re removing the DAC component / analog output as well. How are you going to feed the RCA input of the PrimaLuna with this plan?
I’m not sure I understand the desired result here… the Lumin only supports 2 channel even over Coax AFAIK.
Multichannel would normally be supported in something like the Denon HDMI input. you dont say what your Core is running on now either.
Peter, thank you so much for the suggestions. I had tried shutting down and reconnecting the BNC end because that didn’t seem as secure and that solved things temporarily but not permanently. But I have tried for two days since your suggestion and found if I just stay on Qobuz, I don’t have the issue. I never thought it’d be just Tidal but I see now that it is. Thank you, thank you, thank you! In the meantime, I had ordered XLR-to-RCA cables and had thought I’d try them. Would they make any difference with the Tidal issue? Would you recommend them over the current BNC-to-coax cable? I’ve seen split opinions on whether to use them or not.
The Core is running on a Win10 laptop with decent SSD and RAM memory but usually on WiFi. The Denon will let me use “multi-channel stereo” or even various Dolby settings for my 7.1.4 speakers or stereo settings for the in-ceiling speakers in other rooms.
Roon does NOT recommend running a Core machine over a Wifi connection.
BNC/Coax is digital… XLR/RCA is Analogue - the former you need a DAC connected, the latter the DAC part has been done already.
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If you’re experiencing BNC silence only for Tidal, check whether you’re listening to Tidal MQA track. In Lumin MQA Analog output mode, BNC output is disabled for MQA by design. However, for your RCA output to Prima Luna, you will need to set it back to the Analog Output.
If you experience BNC silence for Tidal non-MQA but no problem with Qobuz, you have a Tidal bandwidth speed issue or your Roon Core WiFi is poor - the 1Gb figure is meaningless for real time audio.
For your BNC test, please set MQA Mode to Digital Output in Lumin app.
D2 has BNC output for digital. D2 XLR is analog. If you use a XLR to RCA cable for D2, it is only for analog output, not the digital output. So it will not directly solve the BNC issue you’re having. However, if you merely want to connect the D2 to both the Prima Luna and Denon via analog, then yes, you may use an XLR to RCA cable to Denon analog RCA input. This avoids needing to set MQA Mode to Digital for BNC output, and back to Analog for RCA output.
Having said the above, I’d say that unless you want to use Denon DSP for surround upmix, I don’t recommend you use the Denon since you already have the Prima Luna for stereo music.
Lumin supports stereo music only.
Do not use WiFi for Roon Core.
The Nucleus that you said you wanted to buy has no built-in WiFi either.
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Great news. XLR to RCA works fine – and surprise, it still allows me to play in other zones and DSP mixes. One other question: I added an external hard drive to the bottom two of the USB inputs on the back of the D2. It shows up as a Lumin X drive and finds an old iTunes folder but doesn’t find any music in it. I think I copied those over as .flac files but it’s been a while. What do I need to do to make this show up as part of my library? Roon sees the Bluesound Vault IP address as my library so this is just a backup and maybe not necessary at all?
Please connect the USB drive to your Roon Core, not to the Lumin.
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Well, I’ll be signing off this thread as I finally moved to the T2. It took me all of a few minutes, comparing a stock D2 to a stock T2 to hear the difference and justify the upgrade. T2 has perhaps even more warmth than the D2, but scads more detail, air, and soundstage depth. It wasn’t close - really surprised me given how much I enjoyed my D2, but perhaps not surprising as my system has been significantly upgraded in the time I’ve owned my D2, and it felt like a digital upgrade was warranted.
I was hoping the differences would be smaller, especially vs the D2 with Sbooster, but Peter was dead right about the T2. I’m going to stay with the stock power supply for now, as I am trading in my D2 with the upgraded Sbooster to help cushion the cost.
Thanks for all the fun and see you on the T2 threads.
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