I have recently been asking myself the same question regarding source and chain of hardware and software to achieve the best results with streaming. The one thing I've learned for sure is it for me it has been a nebulous topic, although I feel as though I'm gaining clarity. On the issue of network I found this video really informative.
My journey down this rabbit hole went something like this....
At first I used a win10 pro laptop with wifi on battery running the tidal app via USB to a Peachtree nova pre. Not bad, but thought I could do better. I then bought an iFi Zen Stream and connected to the Peachtree via USB. I streamed via tidal connect, which allows the Zen Stream to receive data directly from Tidal's servers using a phone as the remote - now that was a massive improvement! I then traded the Peachtree on a used PS Audio Perfect Wave MkII DAC with Bridge II from The Music Room (total cost $1,100.00 after trade) and connected the Zen via USB. This yielded another big improvement. Further research courtesy of PS audio forums led me to understand that a critical issue with a DAC is how it handles the input. The manual for this DAC states the best sound comes from I2S followed by ethernet (via bridge II which uses I2S protocol), then USB, then SPDIF then optical. I then figured out I can stream directly to the DAC from tidal via bridge I2S with mconnect control! Man, that is the real deal! And seems to me like the best topology to get the best streaming sound. Essentially it is the shortest path to the DAC and utilizes the best input protocol. This is just my experience and I'm sure there are many high-end streamer DAC combinations out there that utilize a similar topology and negate the USB or SPDIF issues. If you plan to stream tidal, then be sure to find one that utilizes tidal connect and not their app. I read that in an attempt to gain control of the user interface, tidal is holding out on sending them all the bits. ☮