Curious to know your streaming and dac set up and the best recommended streamer under $15k

So in reading back through this I think @jerryg123 has hit the nail- ROON

I don’t understand the benefits of Roon as I haven’t used it. I use a Naim Uniti Core for ripping/storage because I prefer the sound of its playback through my Dac. Its library management/app is really good- the sound is great.

@dinov - Yes, my transport is a U2 Mini. I’m just now experimenting with streaming and wasn’t sure that making my first investment into a higher priced streamer would be wise in case I didn’t care for it. I also didn’t want my impressions to be muddied by the influence of a different Dac. The U2 was the better option for the test.
Honestly I’ve enjoyed it so far but when I A/B streaming 24/96 FLAC (Qobuz) against my digital files through the Naim the Naim wins every time. The Naim playback is not as “bright” as the Lumin yet still produces a fuller more detailed reproduction. 
@yyzsantabarbara  In reading your response it sounds like you may also prefer the Lumin in the capacity of a transport through a great Dac better than an all in one (unless I read that incorrectly). If true this further galvanizes my belief that separates are still the better option (for me) as opposed to an expensive one box solution.

@woots  Where is Roon falling into play here? When you tried the Innuos did ripping CD’s play into that? 

It sounds like the Roon interface might be the center to which all things orbit, but without the user experience I’m having trouble seeing it’s value as other products have great interfaces as well. Unless of course Roon offers something that enhances sound quality but that isn’t my understanding of its purpose.

@ecpninja Nice please post a review of your Revolution. 

@designsfx Thanks for your impressions. Im really leaning towards the mini for several reasons. First I am having a hard time justifying three times the price for the U1….including the salesman. Second, I hear the new processors are great. Third I am hearing great things about the sound and performance. I too am moving up from the line from a node that I have nursed and upgraded with the pd creative linear power supply , adding a fiber connection, and using a new NAS for a number of years. I’ve improved the sound 100% in my opinion but know that a step up to a Lumin will best that as well. With the way technology is now and all the years I had with the node I can get into a U2 mini and not get sick to my stomach by having to suck up such a huge $ loss if I want to upgrade again in several years. The U2 is a lot of money and it would take me many years to break even in my mind. That’s where I’m at. I wish you luck and wish I could see and hear your U2 mini and talk more about your experience. It’s a dicey decision!

Oh @designsfx, you said the U2 mini is not broken in yet, hear they take some play time, Lumins overall are rather warm sounding, just a thought. 

@designsfx My fav is the Lumin transport into the Lumin DAC. The Lumin gets a fibre stream from an FMC, in my case the EtherRegen (B > A).

Some people may prefer the Musetec 005 streamed with a Sonore OpticalRendu which also gets the stream via the fibre of the EtherRegen. This is just a tad warmer and smoother than the Lumin. I know a lot of people like that extra bit of warmth.

At the moment my fav streamer is the Sonore OpticalRendu over the Lumin X1. This is splitting hairs like the comparison with Lumin X1 vs the Mustete 005.

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• ROON is a great interface for music discovery.
• You can run 2 types of DSP, the easy to setup DSP on the GUI or the very complicated Convolution Engine DSP. I paid $700 to a pro Engineer to setup Convolution filters for my small office when it had the large Theil CS3.7. I no longer have those speakers and no longer use the Convolution engine. However, when I needed it, it worked amazingly.
  • For my Livingroom I will be buying a KEF Blade 2 Meta. I have to keep the speaker about 1 foot from the front wall. Not ideal but those are the breaks. My safety net is that I can call the audio Engineer and he can remotely setup the Convolution filter for ROON. I doubt I will have to do this, but I know this will resolve any room issues I cannot solve myself.
• I tested my DACs using the same duplicate steams to each DAC. I was able to either flip back and forth on my preamp or the source inputs of my DACs to compare. This is the multi-room GROUPED features.

There are more but I have to run.