Lumin U1 vs Lumin U1 mini + sbooster?

Interesting topic. I just had my Ayre QB9 upgraded to a Twenty. I bought my QB9 after it was first introduced in 2010 and that was a big deal back then. I find the premise of the 432 EVO Master intriguing but I’m not in the market at 11,000 Euros. By the time I will be able to make a large purchase, everything technological will have changed. It wasn’t long ago that MP 3 was the only file format we could download, so in ten years, these transports might seem archaic. When I bought my reference stereo, I purchased an ASR Emitter 2 amp and have never regretted it but an amp is far from being a digital streamer or a DAC or even a CD player. I think I’ll buy one of Cullen Cable’s Mac mini power cables and see if that makes an improvement. It’s the law of diminishing returns at this point and since I don’t stream a music server just isn’t pragmatic. However, if anyone might recommend an affordable way towards making a DAC (being used with a server, or DVD player) sound exceptionally better, please let me know.

Goofyfoot, unfortunately everything in the chain can make a significant difference.

I just upgraded from the D1 to U1 mini and it was quite the leap. I would have never imagined a streamer transport could make that much of a difference.

Even after my eye opening experience upgrading my digital cable to the Black Cat Tron, the mind seems to be quite unimaginative when it comes to these things.

Mrcyrpuz, after seeing what the Tron can do, I definitely would not skimp on the digital cable if I had a full size U1.

There is where a one box digital solution would make life a lot easier.

Audio sensibility sells a conversion kit for the U1 mini to run with linear power supplies other than the sbooster.

The kit has a 5.5 x 2.1mm DC socket.

I use it with an Uptone JS-2 LPS.

The U1 mini sounds fantastic in this setup.

I also ground the U1 mini with an Entreq Olympus minimus.

macdude, yes of course everything in the chain matters, that’s why my stereo sounds so good. However the problem with changing technologies is a serious consideration, especially for the companies building DAC’s and digital streamers. Ayre is a company that continues to upgrade their components because they want to keep there customers current. If Lumin had a reputation for doing the same, then I’d be less apprehensive about buying their product. I don’t want to have to drop a few thousand every six years in order to play a larger file size. 

I owned both the Lumin U1 and dCS Network Bridge.  For a number of reasons I don’t own either one now, I found the U1 sounded better to me than the Network Bridge.  I was using both with a dCS Debussy DAC.