Lumin U2 or Aurender N200

@audphile1

I may sound like a broken record but given your rest of the system, I honestly believe N20 is a much better fit and return on your overall investment. If you’re buying new, ask your Aurender dealer to arrange N200 and N20 audition side by side. IME, N20 edges N200 in terms of low frequency extension and slam. And slight but very noticeable edge in perceived detail and noise floor; it is spooky quiet. Should you choose to further elevate the performance of N20, there is an option to add external clock. In my system, adding an external clock to N20 was no less than a revelation.

Also check with Aurender support if you can ‘slave’ your Bricasti DAC via Ethernet. This will eliminate the need for a USB or AES/SPDIF cable. Aurender selectively offers this capability in their advanced menu settings for MSB and Merging DAC’s.

Good luck!

I will echo how great Aurender support is.    These are basically computers so support is key.  Aurender can correct some issues over the network.   

I was having an issue with internet radio stations and they took care of it remotely. 

@lalitk no worries. I realize the N20 is a step up from the N200 but unfortunately it’s currently more than I’m willing to drop on a streamer.

Appreciate everyone’s advice. I didn’t think that anyone ran the U2 and the N200 side by side for a comparison but was hoping I was wrong.

 

FWIW, I use the U2mini in my 12k office system  and the N200 in my 40k large room system. Both are perfect for their application. If they were swapped around it would be a mismatch.

Doodle I had a U1 Mini and it was decent but not on the level of my current system. I wouldn’t expect the U2 Mini to be that much better than the old version.