Streamers - Auralic, Aurender, Lumin, others...

I have owed and Aurlic Aries G2, and currently own an Aurender N150 and W20SE. I struggled with the Aries... to keep it on line (they have a "reboot nightly setting" if that tells you something). The control app was pretty good. Support was slow and the sound quality was not up that of the Aurender which I traded it in for (the Aries G2.2 is said to be much better). One function that infuriated me is that the Aurlic would not work without a numeric code supplied by Aurlic behind the scenes. For some reason, I couldn’t get mine... so I ended up with a brick for a couple days (no support during the weekend, if I remember correctly) while I contacted customer support. I have a philosophical problem with a device that I purchase and spend $5K on that can be rendered useless buy the manufacture... I really don’t own it. 

I have heard most Aurender models and highly recommend them. The sound quality is probably the best... certainly their flagship models are, as they are used in audio shows. My W20SE equals or bests my high end vinyl and CD players. Their customer support is amazing. You can set your unit is mode to allow a technician to log into your streamer overnight and run tests and fix it if required. Their Conductor App is very well respected. Do not underestimate the value of the App. I have some friends that are happy with other streamers, but with bad apps... and that is frustrating to use... it is like a malfunctioning remote. Aurender is a streamer company, probably the largest.

LUMIN has a great reputation. Just reading  the forum posts, you will hear great praise of the sonic qualities. 

Very happy with my Sonore Signature Rendu Deluxe (USB) paired with a Sonore Opticalmodule Deluxe as a Roon endpoint.  Stays on 24/7 and performs flawlessly with my Sonictransporter as its server.  I never have to fuss with it to get it to work properly…it’s as if it is invisible unlike other streamers I have used in the past.  Great sound quality and customer service.  Good luck with your search.  

auralic is out of business

maybe their ip will be bought by another concern in time, but for now the company is kaput and their website is non responsive

their sold units in circulation will continue to work but owners should be prepared for no more ongoing company support, o-s software/firmware updates etc etc in the foreseeable future

auralic has made quite good products since they came onto the scene with the original aries and mini -- though in more recent times they have gone up up up in price with each set of product revisions -- making them increasingly dubious in terms of value for money... this fact no doubt contributing to their commercial demise

If you use a streamer as a roon end point you won’t be taking advantage of Aurender’s proprietary processing including caching to internal SSD. In this case I’d go for Lumin. I also recommend considering Roon Nucleus One and get out of mac min as roon core. While the mini is ok, nucleus one is a better sounding option. 

as the self proclaimed official fanboy of InnuOs on this site, please let me suggest this offering. 
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisbf522-innuos-pulse-mini-media-servers

Or his bigger brother,

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisbg577-innuos-pulse-streaming-transport-in-silver-store-demo-transports
you really have to give those Portuguese some credit. 
https://innuos.com/