Srajan, as I read your industry feature on the value of a common design philosophy all pulling in the same direction—and knowing that Frederic Beudot soon would be dropping his review of the Lumin U2—I thought I'd let you know about my recent experience in the Lumin ecosystem. For a few years I've owned the Lumin X1 streamer/DAC/preamp connected to my network via its fiber connection. My network featured an EtherRegen switch abetted by an AfterDark OCXO clock, digital cable, low-pass filter and linear power supply. Upstream was a Synology NAS with saved albums and various tracks. My daily driver for accessing music (Tidal streaming and NAS music) was the Lumin app until I read Joël Chevassus' review of the JPlay for iOS app which supplanted it.
My aha moment came when I read reviews by Wojciech Pacula (High Fidelity Poland) and Chris Connaker (Audiophile Style) of the Lumin L2, a music library and network switch with two each fiber optic and RJ45 ports. The reviews promised increased sound quality for saved music via the unit's dual hard drives (optional 4TB or 8TB) vs a NAS. Plus, the switch side offered the possibility to replace my assorted network gear with a cleaner solution while keeping the galvanically isolated fiber-optical goodness. Once purchased I installed two 2TB Samsung drives, a nice money-saving option offered by Lumin, connected the L2 to my router via a fiber media converter and then my X1 by the second fiber optical connection. The remaining RJ45 ports fed a seldom-used Roon NUC and TV. The result: besides cleaning up the rat's nest of network connections, I found snappier access to saved music, better SQ for both library and streaming music and dead silence between tracks. Which brings me back to your industry feature. There is a definite advantage in my opinion to accessing my music from within the Lumin ecosystem. Why the sound quality increased compared to my previous setup is somewhat of a mystery. I can only surmise that a simpler more dedicated solution with a common design philosophy won the day. Michael
