BEST MUSIC STREAMER UNDER 5K? BEST MUSIC STEAMER OVER 5K?

@ohlala @phusis @dwette we found using Audirvāna with quboz to be a game changer. We have got it to gauge the best sound quality I’ve heard streaming so far. 

Analog is my main jam. I think the Audirvana user experience sucks, compared to Roon. I’ll give it another chance before my free trial expires in April, but I’m not unhappy with Roon/Qobuz by comparison so far.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as over $5K or under.  When I ordered it the cost was $4950 or similar, but by the time it shipped the price had gone up to $5700.  Anyway, it's a Hifi Rose RS-151.  I'm very happy with it.  It replaced an Aurender A1000 and has an overall better sound quality on my McIntosh amp and speakers.  The touch screen and user interface are far, far easier to use and include some additional source options besides streaming services like Tidal which I use.  It has Rose Tube (youtube), Rose Radio (internet radio stations), and others.  The build quality is quite impressive; the unit is absolutely built like a tank.  The sound quality, of course, is the most important consideration, and I've been thrilled with it so far.  The DAC seems fairly neutral (as are my Mac amp / speakers) and I have no issues with any brightness in the treble or sound stage presence.  

Anyone compared sound using their streamer versus Windows dedicated WASABI to same DAC using USB 2 or 3?  I’m finding this combo sounds very good and USB is generally considered better technically than spdif or toslink.

@dwette before we developed the streamer. I tried several streamers.  Aurender, melco, lumin and esoteric. I went using roon and other interfaces.  We developed our streamer because the others seemed to not have the clarity and dimensionality of the physical media.  Hans figured out the best way to stream and implemented it with Audirvāna and bingo. It sounds better than the others we tried