Streamer: Esoteric or Aurender ACS10


I hope to try out the Esoteric K03XD cd-player at home in the near future.  I gather it has a pretty good DAC.  I am also thinking about changing my streamer/storage device.  At the moment, I am using a Melco N1.  It may be possible to improve the sound quality streamer-wise.
The Aurender ACS10 looks like a very convenient device: it does all the storage on an internal RAID, plays from a SSD and has its own app, which reviews tell me works quite well.
An alternative would be the Esoteric N03T: more expensive, no internal storage, ROON compatible.  One might expect it would integrate seamlessly with the K03XD.  So might the Aurender of course. 

I tried out a ROON nucleus and very much liked the interface, but did not like the sound quality too much when connected with USB to the current DAC (Esoteric K05X).  It stores albums on a single SDD drive, so I would need to back up the music to another place. 

The N03T/ROON Nucleus combination would be rather expensive but might offer better sound quality and a superb interface, if all works smoothly.  Unlike with Aurender, I may have more network issues to resolve, which I don't particularly enjoy.
I would be very grateful for any insights, suggestions, advice or relevant anecdotes.
Many thanks.
paleo12