Network transports are having a moment — again — but this time, with some serious digital swagger. The concept isn’t new, but the demand has shifted. Digital music streamers with built-in DACs are great… unless you already own a killer standalone DAC and have zero interest in paying for another one buried inside a box you don’t need. Enter the dedicated network transport: it skips the internal DAC entirely and focuses on one job — getting your digital music from source to converter cleanly, quietly, and with as little interference as possible.
Lumin’s new U2X is the latest and most expensive example of that philosophy — a $10,000 digital transport claiming to set a new benchmark for audiophile-grade streaming. Built on trickle-down tech from the company’s flagship X1, the U2X offers native support for high-resolution files, multiple digital outputs, and a build quality aimed squarely at the ultra-high-end crowd.
Of course, you could grab a WiiM Ultra or Cambridge CXN100 for under a grand and be very happy streaming Qobuz or TIDAL in pristine quality. But hey, maybe you need 20 Qobuz accounts’ worth of sonic purity and a chassis machined to Swiss vault standards. If you’re the type who believes every packet of digital data deserves first-class treatment, Lumin just dropped your next obsession.
What the Lumin U2X Network Transport Does
The Lumin U2X doesn’t just replace the U1X — it shows up at the funeral wearing a sharper suit and carrying a faster brain. Thanks to Lumin’s most advanced, high-speed System-on-Chip processor (debuted in 2022), the U2X brings a claimed “significant boost” in processing power. Translation: it can juggle large high-res files and aggressive upsampling routines without breaking a sweat — or at least without the fan noise of something panicking under pressure.
One of the standout tricks here is the inclusion of a high-precision 10MHz clock — a rare find at this price, unless you’re browsing the exotic fringe of digital audio where words like “slave clock” are still said without irony. The U2X can act as either a master or slave clock via its single input and dual outputs, which comes in handy if you’ve built a digital rig that looks like a Bond villain’s lair and need everything ticking in sync. Lumin says this improves timing accuracy, reduces jitter, and generally makes your music sound more like a live performance and less like a hostage situation.
As you’d expect for nearly ten grand, the U2X is no slouch on the file format front. It plays PCM up to 32-bit/768kHz and native DSD512, and it up/downsamples DSD256 like it’s flipping pancakes. Even MQA gets a seat at the table, presumably for the diehards still clinging to the format like a vintage LaserDisc collection.
Network flexibility? You get UPnP for local streaming off NAS drives, plus full support for TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, Spotify Connect, and KKBOX (yes, that’s still a thing). There’s also TuneIn internet radio, AirPlay support, Roon Ready certification, and Audirvana compatibility — which basically means it’ll play nice with just about anything you throw at it unless you’re still hoarding RealPlayer files from 2003.
Digital outputs are refreshingly thorough: one optical, coaxial RCA and BNC, and AES-EBU. Ethernet and optical fiber ports cover your networking bases, and of the three USB ports, one is helpfully isolated from noisy network contamination. The other two are free for music storage — or maybe just a neon-lit thumb drive labeled “DIRE STRAITS – LOSSLESS.”
Everything is controlled via the updated Lumin app, which now offers a more user-friendly interface for phones and tablets — a welcome change, especially for those who don’t want to feel like they’re programming a Mars rover every time they queue up a playlist.
Physically, the U2X is built like a tank that got its edges chamfered by a Swiss watchmaker. Both the transport and its external power supply are milled from solid aluminium blocks, providing the kind of structural rigidity that doubles as earthquake insurance. The power supply is kept outside the main unit to separate digital and analog components and preserve signal purity, because nothing says “audiophile” like a monolithic power brick the size of a small loaf of bread.
The Bottom Line
The Lumin U2X arrives in August 2025 and will set you back $9,990 USD (£8995 / AU$18,200). Or, put another way, enough to fund 143 months of Qobuz Hi-Fi — just in case you were wondering how many streaming subscriptions your current DAC could survive before needing a “digital upgrade.”
For more information: luminmusic.com
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- Innuos ZEN NG And ZENith NG Network Streamers Offer Reference Quality Digital Streaming: High End Munich 2024
