2. digital
  3. 170409-165507

Bricasti M5 or Lumin U1 Mini or ?

I recently made some upgrades to my desktop setup, which sadly gets more use due to a downstairs tenant's bedroom being directly below my larger "living room", which currently serves as the TV watching area. I'd love to use the larger room as my main listening room, but unfortunately that wouldn't be great for the tenant, and certainly would not pass muster with wife. The room in question is a small, oddly shaped spare bedroom/office. Spending the majority of my music listening time in there has really caused me to appreciate and enjoy the nearfield listening experience. Originally, I was hoping to build a dedicated music tiny house/mancave/shed in the yard, but have put that on hold until lumber prices come to back down to earth. So for now, I have a pair of Harbeth P3ESR XD speakers driven by a Hegel H120 Amp, connected to an RME-2 DAC FS via Balanced XLR. I listen to physical cd's on an Audiolab 6000CDT Transport , stream with Qobuz, through a Small Green Computer Roon Core, going through a EtherREGEN network switch. At the moment my streamer is a Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra. One of the reasons I bought the Hegel was on the promise of it being Roon Ready, but that hasn't happened in forever, so I have everything going through the RME as far as DAC duties are concerned. I love the Hegel and want to keep it, but I'm having my doubts on it ever being Roon ready. So I'd like to bring the streamer up to par with the rest of the system, and am looking at either the Bricasti M5 or the Lumin U1 Mini. I listen to 99% instrumental electric & acoustic jazz with some classical chamber music thrown in. As you can see, I'm not big fan of vocals. Obviously, either choice has me using the RME Dac. I'd love to get opinions/advice on which of these streamers is the better choice, or is there something else in this price range that is even better. Roon Ready is a must. Thanks for your time & energy.         
128x128davidrolon
aberyclark
1,355 posts
 

@davidrolon Any updates on your M5 experience? The M5 and the new U2 Mini are on my shortlist

davidrolon's avatar
davidrolon OP
39 posts
 

@aberyclark the acquisition process was stellar (more about that in my post from 11/2/21). Could have not asked for a smoother transaction and excellent price. The installation process was all of a few minutes. Plugged in, hooked it up, turned it on. It was up & running in a few minutes. It was recognized instantly by the roon core (SGC). No glitches, no weird behavior. It sounds great, and other than a moment or two here & there, it has not been turned off since day one. Way back when, and for years, I used an old laptop for streaming via the usb port. I used foobar to play ripped cd's ripped to flac from an external harddrive. That worked fine and sounded fine other than the fan noise from the laptop. I graduated to a pro-ject stream box ultra. That was glitchy at first via the streambox app, but worked very well via roon. I ended up selling that to another agon member. From there I went with a cambridge cxn v2. It worked effortlessly, and had a pretty nice color info display. Not exactly sure why, and as has been the case with every cambridge product I've ever bought (100% have been returned,) something didn't sound right. That drove me towards the Bricasti M5. I would have to say, my system sounds great, but that probably has more to do with the other components working well together. Perhaps the greatest compliment is that it has not colored, changed or diminished the excellent sound quality of my system. It is built like a tank in the USA by folks who answer the phone, and know a thing or two about building high quality audio products. I suppose the only downside is there is no fancy color screen, if that is something you care about (I don't). The only little quirk I wasn't expecting was in my black unit, the top surface is actually silver color. If you've ever see a car audio unit before it is inserted in the dash, the M5 upper surface has a similar look to it. That might bug some, but does not affect me at all. I am thoroughly satisfied with my purchase and would recommend the M5 without reservation..        

johnah5
234 posts
 

Hi all I have the U2 mini and don't run Roon.  Any update to this thread or anyone hear both the Bircasti M5 and the U2 mini?

 

Thanks

jh

More to discover