Lumin U1 Mini or Lumin T2 with Boulder 866

That helps. I would rather then go for a transport only, like U1 or U1 Mini. I guess I'll have to use the USB connection in the digital section then, which also comes with its own set of expenses to reduce noise. But I am in the best place if I am using the best DAC available to me.

I have had a Lumin D2, A1, X-1 and the U-1 mini.  I love Lumin.  I was just using the U-1m ini as a transport while I was awaiting my music server.  I now have the music server so no longer need the U-1 mini which was only used for 4 months.  Send me a private email if you want more information on the U-1 mini

My bet is you are wasting coin getting a second DAC, but all you can do is try it. If you believe you can hear what no one else has.

This conversation has got a little interesting. On the Roon community forum, I sent a message to Peter Lie, the Firmware Lead @ Lumin Network Players. I asked him which one he would recommend I buy, T2 or U1, to go with Boulder 866, and this is what he had to say:

"Definitely the T2. There are various things that concern me with the Boulder integrated DAC, such as forced PCM upsampling in the built-in Pi. According to some reviews, DSD is also converted to PCM before playback. I don’t like these. Another minor thing is that it does not play DSD256 (although you can use Roon to downsample the DSD256 first)."

I have asked questions on these lines to Boulder about their DAC but have no response yet.