Yeah I agree. The lower price for the U2 is great but you know many corners had to be cut in an effort to get the pricing down to that level. Hopefully it will somehow better the U1 anyway. I really, really like the fiber SFP cage.
Well they have gone to an inferior chassis so hopefully the savings have been passed on. If that turns out to be true then I’m super happy.
Inferior because it’s in a single chassis now? If that’s the case, my Ayre gear (KX-5 & VX-5 Twenty) is considered fairly high end stuff and pretty well adored by the masses. They’re now using single-chassis units. They used to use seperate chassis - PSU in a separate chassis as the main analog unit. But their newest stuff sounds far better than their older stuff. It all comes down to isolation and I’m pretty sure someone like Lumin is up to the task.
Inferior because its no longer a single CNC’d block and is now made up of several parts. Read the thread for context.
The U2 cost in the UK is £4.5k. Doe’s anyone know if this sits above the U1X in terms of performance?
I’m going to try one of these out. Order has been placed! Should hopefully see it next week.
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I would love to have your feedback. What streamer do you have at the moment?
@Paul_Whittaker I was using an iFi Neo Stream (via optical input) but I just now returned it. Before that, I used my PS Audio Directstream Bridge II for nealy 2 years.
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Good, you qualify for a valid opinion 
Thank you @Paul_Whittaker. Well, the plot thickens as I have also just sold the PS Audio DS DAC and ordered a brand new Ayre QX-5 Twenty 
This combo will be totally new to me and I’m sure it will rock. So I can certainly give feedback on how stable the U2 is as well as it’s connection via fiber (my entire LAN is fiber optic).
I agree. Lumin should include HDMI in all new models.
There is much confusion with HDMI. HDMI I2S as in I2S DAC or HDMI Audio as in AV Receiver or TV?
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If my T2 played hi-res surround via HDMI to my AV receiver that is a feature I would certainly use.
None of the Lumin supports surround.
Even if a few of our old models supported HDMI audio output including HDMI native DSD, that is stereo only. Very few customers used that.
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Very few products provide a simple solution for playing surround files, not surprisingly I guess as it is a very niche market. Guess I’ll have to stick to using my blu-ray player.
I would want HDMI arc in a pure streaming product such as U2 (I dont need a dac).
As with my Bryston DAC, I would like HDMI so I could send the video to my Big Screen TV.
I’m maybe 4 or 5 songs into my first listen and I can’t stop smiling. It’s my first Lumin product so take it with a grain of salt. But the iFi Neo Stream was not even remotely on this level. And this is through my old Ayre Codex DAC while awaiting my new QX-5 Twenty… Yes, it cost a lot more than the Neo Stream but many out there still swear that digital is… digital. Great job Lumin! 
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Congrats on your new Lumin! Their gear is absolutely top drawer, and great customer support too.
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Hi @wklie, is it still the case with the U2 that if you connect a USB DAC, you cannot use the other digital outputs?
With a Lumin U1 (MINI), you may use up to four DAC via AES / BNC / coaxial / toslink connections if the USB output is not used.
If you use a USB output, only one USB DAC will operate correctly.