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

I have a slightly different take than @ghdprentice, who I always respect.

1) while my Aries G2.1 did loose connection a bit, my G2.2 is rock solid

2) I tried the Aurender N20.  While I agree that Conductor sounds best on this device, I could NOT wrap my head around the Conductor App.

3) I prefer Roon.  Roon on my Aries G2.2 sounds better than Roon on the N20

4) Yes Auralic is out of business.  But as I run Roon, I do not care if the Auralic Lightening App updates or not, and will keep the Aries G2.2 for as long as it works as it is now.

4) Might find great deals on an Aries G2.2.

Look for something with fibre (SPF) like the Lumin U2x. I owned the Lumin X1 and the streamer in that was amazing (it also had fibre). The U2x is the X1's streamer without a DAC. Maybe also upgraded too.

I have 2 of these streamers. As good as anything out there because it also does fibre. 

Sonore Optical Rendu Complete System - Original For Sale - US Audio Mart

You also can be cheap with gear BEFORE the fibre like me with my noisy and cheap DELL PC ($500) that runs my ROON Core server. I actually have that PC under a bed in the guest bedroom without monitor, keyboard, or mouse. The gear before the fibre cable does not matter.

If you got the funds look into the Lumin U2x

Lumin makes great gear and streamers.  Another streamer to put on the short list and is Hifi Rose, think it’s the 130 or 150 that is a streamer only.  I have had multiple Lumin Streamers, have had an Auralic Streamer.  Aurender often gets hailed for making the best streamers.  You wouldn’t be disappointed with any of these 3, liking the app is very important as mentioned, especially if you aren’t planning on using Roon.  The adoption of Tidal or Qobuz direct is also huge, negates roon or the native apps of you like their interfaces the best.  Good luck. 

volumio rivo or rivo+

agree that the volumio rivo plus is an excellent streamer in an absolute sense, and an excellent value too

eversolo t8 is a terrific new one too, just a whole lot of streamer for the $, i haven’t tried a t8 yet but my experience with the dmp a6 master (w lps) has been quite positive

i think the game in hifi streamers has changed dramatically over the last 18-24 mos ... much more performance can be had for much less now... spending several thousand bucks for a streamer is rather poor allocation of hifi $$ imo if you are entering this sphere ... moreso than even a couple years ago given what is now available

(obviously if you’ve bought in at 6 8 10 12 15 grand for a top aurender lumin innuos nagra what have you it doesn’t invalidate your purchase, it is just that much high value units have emerged onto the competitive scene of late)

oh and about roon... now, we all know that absolutely no one ’needs’ roon... but a lot of us want it, and we just don’t want to stream without it  :)