Did you try the U1 Mini after all?
Yes, I found a dealer that would give me a full refund with no restocking. i tried it for a couple of weeks and found it marginally better than my $500 Audio Alchemy streamer.
I got the U1 Mini,just curious if your optical isolation improved SQ?
Hereās my feedback to the question. Donāt know do be honest. Did not do a real a/b test with that setup. I do have 3 different setups with Optical isolation:
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A Sonore Signature Rendu Optique that has an optical connection directly connected to a Unifi Switch that has optical and connects to a chord hugo tt and mscalar via usb.
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A Lumin U1 with 10GTek Fiber to Ethernet converter to a Unifi switch that has optical and then goes ethernet to the Lumin U1 and the U1 connects to a chord dave / blu via usb.
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A Lumin U1 Mini with a Gigafoil ethernet filter to a Unifi switchās ethernet connection and connects ethernet to the U1 Mini and the Ui Mini connects to Dutch and Dutch 8Cs speakers via XLR.
Iāve done some A/B testing of the U1 setup (not the U1 mini) as that kit is in racks with lots of other equipment so could easily pick up radiated noise on a wired ethernet connection (one of the main things to protect against) and it did IMHO improve sound dynamic and imaging. Iāll note my testing was not exhaustive and not blind so YMMV. But because of this Iāve just decided that it will be part of every setup I have as the incremental investment to do it by default is so low it just makes sense. I view it in the same line of thinking of buying good quality cables and I anticipate optical connection will become standard on high end streaming boxes overtime (as it already has for Sonoreās high end streamer).
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I begun using optical isolation, between my router and the āmusic portionā of my network (where everything runs on LPS), two/three years ago and, back then, I thought it was somehow effective (nothing dramatic though)
but almost none of the equipments I had back then is still there, except the āclean sideā MC (ādirty sideā switch Iām using today has two integrated SFP ports) soā¦ canāt really say if optical isolation is still effective. Iām leaving it in place nonetheless and Iāll connect the EtherRegen via optical (gone will be both the āclean sideā MC and switch). will report on CA once itās here 
Have you or Craig tried the Matrix with I2S connection?
I have not tried this.
What AES/XLR cable do you use in the U1 Mini set up? Have you compared its SQ to USB?
Iām using a Shunyata Delta AES/EBU cable to connect my Lumin U1 Mini to my Dutch & Dutch 8C speakers which is an excellent cable. The 8Cs only have ethernet or AES/EBU inputs and their firmware support for Roon directly via ethernet isnāt released yet so AES/EBU via the U1 was my only choice for the time being but it works great and sounds excellent. USB input is not available on the 8Cs so could not compare with AES/EBU. Sorry.
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What model of the unifi switch you use?
@wklie
Are there any plans for Lumin to include an optical network for a U2 model (replacing the current U1 transport) or as least consider it. IHMO that would be an interesting and excellent streaming transport, plus would make sense in the changing world of streaming.
Yes, and with internal LPS.
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Thanks Peter. What was the rationale for not keeping the power supply separate. Will there be another version or model with seperate power supply. Any plans for an ethernet switch ?
Feedback from dealers/distributors was that a 2-box system was less appealing at this price point.
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This is also a very effective copper Isolator. No idea how it relates to fiber converters.
https://www.emosystems.com/product/en-85e/
I use it on my A1 and on my old D2. I contacted EMO Systems directly and they said that the en-85e is superior to all of their other models for use in audio; they apparently have many costumers who use them for network audio.
thanks, appreciated. In truth I was hopefully of the U2 being a two box design!
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