Lumin L2 was a revelation

First, I must admit I am a Lumineer, in my parlance, a Lumin fan. I own an X1, which, despite its age, is a marvelous piece of kit that continues to punch well above its weight. I would argue it was ahead of its time in implementation of Ethernet over fiber, dual Lundahl output transformers, industrial-strength dual-toroidal linear power supply, Leedh volume control, etc. I don’t think I’ll ever replace it.

In an effort to clean up my rat’s nest of a networking system, I purchased the Lumin L2, which permitted me to run fiber from my router to the device and in turn fiber to the X1. Plus, I used the two RJ45 connections to connect my Roon NUC and TV. The L2 also afforded me the ability to install two 2TB hard drives for my music collection.

I knew from a few reviews that installing the L2 with a Lumin network player, especially one with a fiber connection, would produce a dead silent background from which music flowed effortlessly. The reviews extolled the benefits of stored music playback, and I would agree on that score. What I didn’t expect was the increased fidelity from streaming music, as well. I have three different ways to play back music: Roon, Lumin app and JPlay for iOS. To be perfectly honest, it’s really hard to distinguish the differences among the three. Perhaps it’s my age-affected hearing–73–or perhaps it’s because with the L2/X1 combination, music playback is uniformly terrific.

Bottom line: if you have a Lumin network player and are searching for a better networking solution, perhaps a better library system, think about adding the L2. It’s superb, especially if one adds it within the Lumin ecosystem.

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