Eversolo T8 vs Lumin U2 and Laiv Harmony DAC

@mrdecibel Yes.  And better sound quality allows us to better hear all aspects of the performance.

As an example, a few months ago, I listened to Angela Hewitt's recording of the preludes and fugues after a gap of some years. I was struck by qualities of the sound and wondered what piano she played and found that she was a Fazioli artist.  This led me to find out why she chose that instrument, to learn about the company, and her approach to playing.

Great SQ allows us to hear more of what the artist has invested, in the broadest sense, in their performance.

But yes, I do sometimes have to catch myself, realizing I am lost in the technical aspects of the sound, especially if I have made a change to the setup, and have to remind myself to listen to the music NOT the sound!  After making a change it is not unreasonable to critique the effects of the change, to evaluate whether this will enhance the experience of listening to the music; will we hear more of what the artist is striving for.

The post below may be a duplicate, I thought I had made these comments but did not see them in the thread, so ...

There is some sort of continuum of responses to changes in streamers affecting SQ, from none, they all sound the same, to night and day differences.

I think that all responses may be correct, in that DACs appear to have greater or lesser sensitivity to the source of their data.

In the earlier days of digital, different CD transports and different digital interconnects had massive effects on the resulting audio from the attached DAC, and products such as the Digital Lens were created to alleviate the problems.  I believe that in early DACs there was little (if any) buffering of the data and the DAC's clock was reconstructed, via a PLL, from the input stream and therefor the timing of the clocking of the data to the DAC processor was dependent on the quality of the input.

My DAC is the Esoteric K-01XDSE, with an external rubidium clock, and, to my ears, in my room, though my amplification and speakers, does not seem to be affected by changes to the source component.  A change from the Aurender to the T8 has not affected SQ in any way. nor would I expect it to.  I use an asynchronous USB connection and the DAC has engineered isolation of the circuitry from the source.  It has a FIFO buffer and the clocking is totally independent of glitches on the input stream.  Note that the chain outbound from the DAC (LA4, XA25, Atria II) is very transparent, though perhaps the Cardas Clear Reflection interconnects is slightly less so.

Other DACs may have prioritized their circuitry differently so that they are affected by the input timing, and that the sound is changed by different sources. It appears that the Fezz is one of those.

I A/B with the Lumin U1 mini with a Schiit Yggy OG dav via usb. The Lumin had a more spacious sound and cleaner up top.  The T8 is going back unfortunately, this machine is way overhyped.  I'm disappointed.  You pay for all the gizmos rather sound quality.  Its decent but a used Lumin mini costs less and sounds better.  Be aware for those on the fence with buying the T8

I had both Lumin and Eversolo T8 connected to r2r dac, McIntosh C2700 and McIntosh MC452 driving a pair of Revival Atlante 5 and with that system and to my ears, Eversolo T8 sounded a bit better using both USB and I2S connection. I will stick with the I2S though.

The T8 is the second ES gear (after A6) I’ve acquired. Despite its impressive specs, the bright-leaning neutral house sound and slightly hyper-etched presentation are just not my cup of tea.