Looking for best streamer without DAC under $3500

$3500 budget for a streamer to stream Spotify?? Ummm, ok, lol.  Sounds like a serious set-up... why not use qobuz, tidal, amazon hd?  $3500 streamer and spotify go together like a 911 turbo and 85 octane 👍

@creativepart  Have you ever had the firmware corrupt on you  requiring you to burn a new microsd and put it on? I find that a bit annoying.

@creativepart  Have you ever had the firmware corrupt on you requiring you to burn a new microsd and put it on? I find that a bit annoying.

Actually, one time. I originally had the SMS200 before getting the SMS200 Ultra. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I was messing around with the SD card and a reboot button on the rear of the unit and it corrupted the SD card. I didn't need to buy a new one. I copied a safety copy to my computer and downloaded a new disk image. After I applied the image to the SD everything worked normally. This was back at version 4.2 of the firmware. I was only down for half a day while I figured out what I needed to do. SoTM support (May) was responsive and helpful.
I never had any other similar events and I went on to upgrade to the Ultra version of the SMS200. I've not had any issues with it at all. It's just plug and play.