Fairly new to streaming. Where to start?

@bicuThis was written in 2013. Is it valid? Digital keeps changing and we learn more every day. . The CEO of Aurender disputes this I believe.

Some have suggested that I spend $200-300 +/- for a player/dac. Do you really think that will sound good or be competitive in my system? Of course not.

The Node 2 was a good way for me to dip my toes into the world of streaming, but the turning point for me was when I spent some time listening to the same song on my two turntables, my CD player, and the Bluesound. 

Obviously there are a number of factors that contribute to the sound quality, the recording itself, phono stages, cables, etc.  Having said that, the Bluesound was the least good sounding source in my system.  And I was using my Auralic Vega as the DAC instead of the Bluesound's DAC.  I never thought the Bluesound sounded bad, but it wasn't as good. 

After upgrading to the TEAC NT-505 I've had thoughts of going all digital.  I enjoy spinning records too much and they do have their "magic", but the playing field has been leveled, if not tipped in favor of digital due to the convenience factor and access to an exponentially larger collection of music than I have at my fingertips through streaming services.  I know you've said you don't plan to use any streaming services, but you should really give them a try.  Sound quality is excellent and it greatly expands your music library.  For the price of a few lattes, you can have an enormous library of music available.

Starting out with something like the Bluesound might not be in line with the quality of the rest of your system, but it will give you a chance to find out if streaming is for you or not.  I bought mine as a demo unit and flipped it for about what I paid for it when I upgraded.  The Lumin D2 or the TEAC NT-505 would be in line with the rest of your system and both are around your budget.  If you're convinced that streaming is something you'll use and enjoy, then I'd just skip the lower end stuff and start there.

My old audio digital bits have not changed for over a decade.

"..Unless programmed to manipulate the digital data.." here is one from 2016 - https://archimago.blogspot.com/2016/08/musings-do-audiophile-computer-based.html mentioning Aurender as one of the solutions.

Since we are talking streaming pedigree, I've been streaming since 2004 with Apple's Airport Express(M9470LL/A), bit perfect even then if used with optical out, before all other solutions came around.

Personally I use RPI3 with venerable RopieeXL. Have I compared it with USB directly out of my laptops, iPads, YES. RPI has a DigiOne coax SPDIF, so I do both USB and Coax and even optical with Audio Chromcast into my DAC, which is Chord Hugo TT2 and on either input, optical/coax/USB of any combination, PC, iPad, RPI, all of them sound just as good, actually better then good, but that I do not attribute to transports or source but to TT2. Source can be FLAC/ALAC/DSD or lossless streams.

Artemus_5 I have not a/b'ed the Node and Yamaha but am going on the comments of others.Here is a pretty thoughtful review of the unit, in case you have not come across this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovrS88tddmo&t=497sOne of the things I like about the Yamaha is both the hardware and the Musicast software is very flexible with regard to sources and outputs, although I expect BlueOS is also quite good from what I have read.

I can't find any reviews of the new Ultra Rendu but it's predecessor was held in pretty high esteem. The SOTM SMS200ultra is also a contender at a slightly higher price point. To get the most out of each of these options I think a quality external power supply and a commitment to Roon may be necessary.

I started with chromecast into any hdmi then started upgrading dacs. Def not the best but very easy introduction. Key was good dac. Started with Schiit modi multi, have Bifrost now, contemplating next move