On that score too P1 still played enforcer. No sooner had it finished playing the first track of an album, instead of cueing up the second track as dictated by my software player, it grabbed a random track I didn't recognize. This was despite Audirvana showing my second track as streaming and P1's display confirming it as playing. This happened again with the next album's second track. That music I now recognized as something from my library. Being recorded a lot hotter, playback SPL simply jumped without warning. Once again both iMac and Lumin showed the track that should have streamed so not what P1 decided to actually play. On the third album I didn't get halfway through the first track before P1 started another random track. This time my player software actually displayed it. But clearly Lumin's OS didn't recognize or sync to Audirvana's memory function. That caches album or playlist tracks in RAM to spin down the iMac's FusionDrive. Having a network streamer arbitrarily pick what music one listens to is neither acceptable nor normal of course. It was time to call on their team in Hong Kong.

Now I learnt of this page. It explains that the remote's numerical keys are input selectors. Once you know, you know. Duh. In non-network mode,  no meta data displayed, just chosen input and volume. But I no longer sent music data unnecessarily to the router and back. I went USB bridge ⇒ AES/EBU ⇒ P1. I was in my usual Audirvana biz without involving Lumin's app on the iPad. About random track grabs my factory contact still promised to look into it though it no longer happened in my new connection. As far as I was concerned, all systems were now go. If devils have all the fun, now this angel was ready to get down. The primary hardware contrast was our discrete R2R Denafrips Terminator Plus. Both converters routed through our icOn 4Pro autoformer preamp for remote volume in 1dB steps. To gauge lossless efficacy of Lumin's Leedh processing for amp-direct drive, that bypassed the Dave Slagle autoformers. Their voltage/current conversion has the enviable benefit of generating ever higher output current with increasing attenuation. With our 95dB 3-way speakers, my usual SPL sit 30-40dB below unity gain.

Biker boots. Air-sole trainers. Flip flops. Wearing either quickly adjusts how we walk. Weights differ. So does the impact which heels, springy soles or walking flat have on our bearing and center of gravity. Quickly we compensate. Obviously this also influences where we go. Mud and flip flops prefer not to meet. Neither do swim trunks, sand and calf-high boots. Swapping converters felt alike. With Denafrips I wore my square-toed biker boots from Spanish brand Sendra. I felt  taller, heavier and walked a touch more leisurely. With Lumin I sported trainers. Those quickened my gait and lightened the movement. In hifi terms, our domestic tonality was heavier, its dynamic impact more robust and the general upshot more scale and mass. The visitor was lighter and more compact. Its gestalt was more fleet-footed. That dug subjectively deeper into micro resolution. On the color spectrum the Terminator had more black, the P1 more white. Past taking note and formulating it in these terms, I quickly adjusted to drop the note. Comparing speakers and the amps which drive them registers harder. That doesn't render DAC decisions moot, just next in line. Start with sorting your transducers to the room, your amp to them. Once locked in, Dex the hifi doc sez go dax.

If somewhat darker, heavier and softer then gets your vote, the Terminator is a great option albeit without volume control. If somewhat quicker, lighter and more micro than macro is your poison, the Lumin has your number. While my usage sidestepped its streaming functionality and universally lauded app—many will consider that the lion's share of its proposition—there's still its built-in digital volume control to cancel need for a separate preamp. At my 30-40 decibel signal cut, the usual on-chip math even upsampled strips original bits hence resolution. The French algorithm claims less loss. Now drive across possibly longer cables is down to low-Ω current delivery whereby Lumin's output stage shakes hands with an amp's input stage. In our downstairs setup of source stack on a sidewall, pre/power amps between speakers, that cable is 6 meters long. Upstairs it would have been just 1 meter. Without router access, P1 simply couldn't go there. What did Leedh make of our conditions?