Lumin U2 or Aurender N200

@lalitk thanks! 

it blew away the M3 inbuilt network renderer in every possible way exceeded my expectations as far as what’s possible by introducing a high quality streamer, but obviously the rest of the system plays an important part in all this

P.S. I used a term “blew away” above. I normally refrain from making such statements but in this particular case I couldn’t find another way to describe the change. Every aspect of listening experience improved in a major way. This us just not a subtle change at all.

Ok, but is it more musical than CD playback? 😉

@mclinnguy I will say that tonally it is in a totally different league from the audiolab 6000cdt cd transport that I returned. In addition to timbre and tone, the presentation is a lot more engaging with the N200 in my system. The music is back!!!

The network renderer in the Bricasti DAC is a $1,000 option which makes it a lot closer in competition to the audiolab 6000cdt

The N200 is a significantly more expensive dedicated streamer and I hoped it would deliver. I’m not disappointed is all I can tell you.

At this time I have no immediate plans to compare the N200 to a comparably priced CD transport or player. But if opportunity arises, I’ll post my thoughts.

Oh, I didn't realize the CD transport was a new one, I thought you bought an older one on a whim. Nice you could return it without a $ hit. 

USB is the best interface in my system understandably so due to N200 clock implementation related to spdif out

I think a streamer would be my next move, but I sold all my USB cables so I guess I would have to get the Grimm. Yes, I am trying to talk myself into it. 😏

I haven't listened to any other streamer other than the exasound playpoint, but I think I would have to do better than the N200 to better the one integrated into my Weiss 501? I have some time to research as I just got this DAC and everything sounds pretty good for now. 

The only other item I had on my list was a Rhodium Furutech GTX-NCF and I just ordered one. If you don't mind me slightly hi-jacking this thread I believe you have one- still happy with it? (After the claimed ridiculously long break in )

Additionally I see the Antipodes K21 is similar in price to the N200. Did you consider this unit?