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

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  :)

Anyone else have a positive opinion on the Volume Rivo / Rivo Plus? It’s Roon Ready and seems pretty affordable. I wasn’t familiar with this product before.

As for my Mac mini — and some of the negative comments about using it — I also agree that it shouldn’t be connected directly to my DAC since it can be noisy, etc. That’s why I’m looking for a dedicated streamer. I still think using the Mac as a Roon Core (without connecting it straight to the DAC) is a solid option. It’s inexpensive and offers plenty of processing power for upsampling and other tasks, since Roon can be pretty resource-hungry.