Lumin vs Bricasti Volume Control

@lordmelton 

Interestingly, I may use your stop-gap advice of DAC/preamp first and then invest in a preamp. Due to budget, I would like to get a killer amp, and DAC then worry about preamp. I only do digital, so I have to address the diminishing return that a preamp will provide vs. the cost of such a unit. 

@jeffreyw Yes Jeff that's exactly what I did. Checkout the Musetec 005 Dac it has remote volume control which can be bypassed when you get a Pre.

Regarding power amps there are some killer Threshold (Pass Labs) Class A & A/AB on the used market they are wonderful, I have one.

Well, I got the Lumin T2 home yesterday and set it up to play directly into my two amps. I have the Sbooster standing by ready to be installed. I decided to give the T2 a run on it's own first. I experienced a much better soundstage and separation between the instruments and the vocals. At first the bass was missing. That smash that I love. So, I hooked it up through my preamp and the low end and the smash returned. My speakers have two 12" woofers and plenty of power, so that wasn't the problem. But with the preamp in line there was a slight veil that wasn't there when going direct.

I then removed the preamp and went back to running the T2 back into the amps. Over the course of the long evening, the music got sweeter. I am now at about 20 hours of continuous play and the base and the fullness are appearing. I am going to add the Sbooster and run it in. I am starting to become highly optimistic that running direct is the way to go.

My wife and I went to two local audio stores for reference. We demo'd two different sets of Magnpan 3.7's with subs and for fun a high end setup in the 250k range. I came home and wasn't embarrassed. For the amount of beer money I have spent, I think I, with just a couple of more tweaks, will decide to be very satisfied. 

Conclusion. I am going to Sboost it and let it break in and continue to run the Lumin T2 directly into my amps and control volume with the Leedhs volume control. 

I am curious if anyone has tried different fuses with the Lumin T2?

I tried M3 direct. It had that raw, detailed sound that I have experienced before without a preamp in other systems. The percussion sounds were heavily emphasized over other sounds, such as the vocals, so I much prefer the edit of the Lamm L1. I did not allow for any burn in, though.  I am not sure there is really any substitute for that just-right preamp.

I just installed an Sbooster on my T2. I consider it to be a tweak. A bit of a leap of faith that makes some sense on paper, but am unsure if it'll be worth roughly another 10% investment. I will leave it on for a week or so to let it break-in before I pass judgement. After an hour it certainly hasn't made anything worse ;)

Fuse? When the Sbooster is installed, the Lumin IEC connector/fuse holder is removed. Any fuse you might want to change is within the Sbooster. Not sure I'm ready to start tweaking what is already a tweak.