Another person going digital and full of questions

search bar above is your friend...

short answer, unless you are going to run roon, get an innous, auralic or lumin one box streamer/dac in your price range

Bluesound Node2 is a good starter streamer.  It works with every streaming service out there.  They have just upped their DAC, and you may or may not find it compares with your current DAC.  It will leave most of your budget intact so that you can upgrade the DAC significantly if you wish goingforward.  I would add Cambridge Audio CXN 60 for about twice the price of Bluesound.  It has a better DAC and adds Chromecast and AirPlay and really excellent Internet Radio and Podcast capabilities.

@mahler123

i agree that the node will do the job very well but op wants to spend 5 grand... what do you want him to do with the other $4500? 😂😉

Thanks for responding.  As I suspected, opinions are all over the map, ranging from  the ASR view that streamers make no difference and DACs have been solved and anyone spending more than $100 is a dupe, to the opinion that the dcs Bartok at $20k is the cheapest DAC you can get that makes music sound like music.  (but of course, not without another $10k or so of wires etc).

Then inside that difference of opinion there's "the streamer doesn't matter, spend the money on a DAC" vs "the streamer makes all the difference, get a good one and upgrade the DAC later."  Then inside THAT controversy another one about the particular DAC architectures, and inside that, of course, an endless debate about which brand or model is crap and which one is nirvana.

Anyway, I'm enjoying it all, though, I have to say, not yet very enlightened.  So thanks again.

Anyway, I’m enjoying it all, though, I have to say, not yet very enlightened. So thanks again.

op - i have had some fun on this thread you started...but here are some (serious) key points that may help your quest for enlightenment on the subject

1. it all matters, from ethernet/wiring, cabling, noise management (digital signal, power supply and mechanical), and of course dac and streamer

2. but dacs matter most ...up to a certain level (call it well reputed ~$6-10k+ dacs, then they converge in sound) - below that level, dacs sound pretty different as all sorts of cost/quality tradeoffs are being made

3. in general up to that high level of dac where sound quality converges, i would say dac choice drives sound quality 75-80%, rest derives from streamer selection and the rest...

4. but... and here is the big but... once you are into that high, truly excellent level of dacs (msb, top chord, weiss, bricasti, totaldac and so on), in order to get the most out of these, let them fulfill their potential (call it getting your money’s worth out of what you paid for that superb dac), everything feeding it from upstream needs to be pristine.... streamer, ethernet, noise filtering, jitter control, connections, computing (roon core, that ilk)... and the high level of dacs, the underlying technology matters less (r2r vs bitstream), the makers have used whatever technology they have chosen to deliver the end result (great great sound), and then it is more about features, form factor, connections...

5.  one can get terrific sound at a lower level of cost than isolated computing to streamer to super dac... but as usual, in this hobby, just like in analog, speakers, amplification, you spend alot, work hard, make great efforts for that last 10-15-20%....

good luck