I came across the statement:
"Why are we trying to stick a $300 streamer on a $1500 DAC?
stay in the same ballpark for optimum results. "
My first thought was, "because the guy who is asking actually knows how these devices function???"
I have a pretty well matched rack of gear in one room, and pieces and parts to play with in others, and I was looking at the Bluesound Nano to simply deliver the ones and zeros to a DAC that was already on the shelf. No need to match the looks, size, color, or anything else... simply to connect to the streaming provider (or local files) to deliver the ones and zeros to a DAC. It's a transport, and as others have said, unless someone can post exactly why a certain devices cannot deliver the stream of data and how it affects the data going into the DAC, the criticism is moot. That said, even though this is an older thread I'm responding to, a lot of us are still doing research on things for specific needs, not to simply hemorrhage cash on a device because we spent a lot already on a different device to make it visually match, or be of the same perceived status of another. The Nano is a serious consideration for me as I own other BluOS devices and have been happy with how they work around the house (never thought I'd care, but it's great). Other streamers I've seen are simply based on a Raspberry Pi placed in a fancy housing. Buying big expensive gear is easy, but I don't know anyone who would be impressed or would ever be able to tell a difference if they cared, so the tinkering with lower-cost high-reward listening is part of the fun.