New LUMIN U2 Mini – Network Transport

Image Credit: LUMIN

The LUMIN range of products are manufactured by the Hong Kong based Pixel Magic Systems that was founded in 2003. This privately-held electronics equipment manufacturer originally established itself with a range of home theater and home audio products, releasing the LUMIN range of Audiophile Network Music Players starting in 2012. 

The LUMIN U2 Mini, is their latest Network Transport only player that works in conjunction with an external DAC and is LUMIN’s first product to feature the brand’s all-new processing system. 

The U2 Mini is capable of up-sampling and down-sampling all the way from 44.1kHz to 384kHz/DSD256 with network playback up to DSD512 and 768kHz, 16-32 bit stereo and MQA Decoding. Key hardware features carried over from U1 Mini include the quad clocking system and 5 types of digital outputs: 

• AES/EBU
• Coaxial BNC
• Coaxial RCA
• Optical
• USB x2 (supports DSD512)

Image Credit: LUMIN

While inputs include:

• RJ45 1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet
• USB ports can also be used for storage, flash drive, USB hard disk (Single-partition FAT32, exFAT and NTFS only)

Supported file formats include:

• DSD Lossless;
  • DSF (DSD)
  • DIFF (DSD)
  • DoP (DSD)
• PCM Lossless:
  • FLAC
  • Apple Lossless (ALAC)
  • WAV
  • AIFF
• MP3
• AAC (in M4A container)
• MQA

The U2 Mini supports gapless playback, Multi-Room with Songcast, is Roon Ready and compatible with:

• Spotify Connect
• Tidal Connect
• Qobuz
• FLAC
• Lossless Radio
• TuneIn Radio
• AirPlay

Image Credit: VOLENT Audio

Control is through the free LUMIN app that includes native control for TIDAL, MQA, Qobuz and TuneIn Radio together with:

• Volume control
• Tidal MQA icons to identify high-res music and Qobuz high-res icons to identify high-res music
• High-resolution artwork, artwork caching, search, multiple tag handling, composer tag support, album-grouping in playlist
• Automatic internet links to artists/album/songs and saving and restoring of playlists (including Tidal and Qobuz)

The app maybe loaded onto all models of Apple iPad with iOS 8.0 or later, Android devices using Android 4.0 or later and the Apple Mac with macOS 11.0 or later.

Finally the U2 Mini comes with a Leedh Processing lossless digital volume control and is compatible with the LUMIN Infrared Control Package.

Technical Specifications:

• Network Playback:
  • Up to DSD512
  • Up to 768KHz, 16-32 bit, stereo
  • MQA decoding
• Up-sampling Rates & Bit Depths:
  • DSD256 up-sampling option for all files
  • PCM 384KHz up-sampling option for all files
• Digital Output Connectivity:
  • USB:
    • Native DSD512 support
    • PCM 44.1–768KHz, 16–32-bit, Stereo
  • Optical, Coaxial RCA, Coaxial BNC & AES/EBU:
    • DSD64 (DoP64, DSD over PCM)
    • PCM 44.1KHz–192KHz, 16–24-bit
• Power Supply: Internal shielded 100–240V AC auto-ranging
• Physical:
  • Finish: Raw aluminum or black anodized aluminum
  • Size: 11.81ins (W), 9.60ins (D), 2.36ins (H) – 300mm (W), 244mm (D), 60mm (H)
  • Weight: 5.51lb, 2.5Kg

MSRP (TBC):