Lumin or Aurender

My vote is for Lumin. I’ve had a T2 for a little over a year and loved it so much I recently purchased an X1. The T2 gets you 80% of the X1 performance for about one-third the cost so there’s a lot of value there.  It has an integrated DAC and is within your price range. The Lumin app is my personal favorite too out of the three I have streamers using (Lumin, BluOs, iPeng). 

I have an Aurender ACS 100 and an ifi Pro DSD dac and I am very pleased at the overall sound and quality and ease of use with the conductor app.

Roon is a must for me. Therefore Aurender out. It’s a nonstarter. I have a Lumin U1 Mini and it truly is very powerful with great SQ. Plus you can upgrade it with an SBooster LPS. I have also added Noico to the interior to dampen EMI. A nice little DIY project. But if you must have an internal DAC, Lumin has those units too. 

I started streaming 5 years ago with a LUMIN D1 - the streamer and DAC ran great - and held there value ( bought the D1 for $2,000 - sold it on Avon 4 months ago for $1,200). Upgraded to the LUMIN T2 - much improved sound stage and vocals vs the D1. The T2 has the Sabre DAC- a real step up. Lumin’s app on my I Pad mini works great. I get any software upgrades automatically from LUMIN. You need an Ethernet connection to get the LUMIN on line. I stream Tidal MQA - retired my turntable - my sound quality is so good.

Trial Roon to see if you like it. I tried it, but didn’t like it. Also did not like having to have a computer running Roon Core on my network. Anyhow, also tried BluOS, LUMIN, m-connect, and Aurender Conductor. Of these Aurender is my favorite. It is very intuitive and easy to use. The pop-up menus are very easy to understand. Metadata is easy to access. File resolution can be browsed without playing the selection.  The Aurender N100 series are small form factor and can be paired with a small form factor DAC if space is the reason you want an Integral DAC. I wouldn’t go back to an Integral DAC. Too many great choices out there!  Good luck!