STREAMER - WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?

@mdalton - I was intrigued by your post.  With that said--and not that I know anything (I don't)--I'm inclined to agree with @soix regarding the need to spend no more that $2k for a streamer to achieve SOTA performance.  If that's true, then that

suggests that those who spend $2k+++ for a streamer are ignorant or suckers for the hype "spend more, get more, or both."   

I find it hard to believe that so many could be wrong and could save a boatload of money by buying a Cambridge Audio EXN100 or Bluesound Node Icon and get reference-level results.  

Could so many be so wrong? (In a world with $100,000 speaker cable, I guess it's possible)

My list of less expensive streamers would include the Sonore products, the Volumio Rivo and Rivo+, Holo Red, Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra, and a few others, but would not include the Cambridge Audio and Bluesound, fwiw.

To be clear, there are $5k, $10k and $20k streamers that are well engineered, and do what they’re supposed to do, which is move a digital file from a source to your dad, without adding a material amount of noise.  That’s it.  You just don’t have to spend that much to achieve that result.  (Btw, I would never advise you purchase a product that combines the server and streamer function into one product.  That creates potential noise issues that require more money to be invested to mitigate the noise.)

There is one mainstream audio magazine - HiFi News - that does a pretty good job of producing standardized measurements for streamers to evaluate their noise (or lack thereof).  In the interest of brevity, I’ll just encourage you to read the full thread I previously provided a link to.  But to answer your question, yes, there is a huge amount of misinformation in the marketplace and among our fellow enthusiasts about streamers.  I’ve been streaming for over 20 years, and it’s just gotten worse over that time.  

To be clear, there are $5k, $10k and $20k streamers that are well engineered, and do what they’re supposed to do, which is move a digital file from a source to your dad, without adding a material amount of noise.  That’s it.  You just don’t have to spend that much to achieve that result. 

Yup. No difference between a $2k streamer and a $10k streamer.  Makes perfect sense. 🤣🤣🤣  Talk about misinformation.  

@mdalton - I actually read through the thread to which you referred shortly after you posted it and found it interesting.  Like many, I'm learning and have been in this game about 40 years since just before I bought my current speakers.    

Streaming is new to me.  I read with interest many of the threads in the Digital section and much of the discussions leave me with more questions than answers.  Although I've owned my first all-in-one streamer almost two years, It took me well over a year before I spent any time with it because I've been on a violently-paced upgrade path replacing the Caps on my amps.  Even today, I only spend about 5 hours each week listening.  We live in a decent-sized, single-story home, but it's an open floorplan and my system is in a room adjacent to the family room where my wife watches TV until the TV starts to watch her.    

BTW, Hifi News is the only magazine that I could find that wrote a review on my new DAC:  https://www.hifinews.com/content/balanced-audio-technologies-rex-3-dac-usb-tube-dac

I think that I'll subscribe. 

Last thought: Someone posted about their experience with Aurender products, how there were obvious benefits to spending more than $2k in that product range.  That makes perfect sense.  Remember, Aurender, Innuos and some others offer entry level products that combine the server and the streamer in one box.  It’s a great idea for convenience, but sub-optimal for noise mitigation.  CPUs for servers typically require a lot more power than streamer CPUs, and therefore generate more noise.  So the entry-level Aurenders are noisier than their higher-priced products.  Therefore, if you want the convenience of a single-box solution, I whole-heartedly agree that it would be tough to get state-of-the-art performance for $2k.  That’s precisely why I recommend you keep your server separate from your streamer.  If you do, you can get a whole lot more performance for less $.