late to streaming, recommendations?

@argonsteele given your budget, my recommendation would be to forget the streamer and instead pick up a used Bricasti M3 DAC with MDX board and a built in network renderer and use Jplay with it, streaming either Qobuz or Tidal. Sell your Cambridge DAC and kill two birds with one stone - upgrade the DAC and eliminate the need for streamer as for $1000 - $2000 you’re unlikely to significantly exceed the quality of the Bricasti’s network renderer, if at all. You might need to up the budget to about $3500 total. 

Today I purchased a used Sonore OpticalRendu for $500 (see USAM for listings). No power supply since I already had one lying around. This streamer uses fibre optic as input and outputs to USB on your DAC. Getting fibre optic from Ethernet is easy and cheap and for me the very best way to stream. The opticalRendu is in the same league as the Lumin fibre streamers (some of the very best and expensive at $10k).

I think this is the 8th opticalRendu that I have bought. I have bought 5 of them for my own use and bought 3 for a friend. I sold my extra Rendu's when I sold a DAC, but I seem to always come back to the Rendu when I have a new DAC that needs to stream.

These units are rather cheap now on the used market. There is a new version out that is supposed to sound even better, but I am good with the old version given the price.

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Something I am curious about is if the Schiit Audio DACs with Union 2.0 USB input sound as good as the opticalRendu streamer when the DAC is connected directly to a noisy laptop by USB. Normally, you never want to do this but some experiments with a Schiit DAC module with Unison USB have been eye opening. I want to compare these 2 streaming options next week when I receive the opticalRendu I just purchased.

@argonsteele 

Start small with something from Bluesound. They have a several models well within your budget. I bought a Node N130 a few years ago. It’s a streamer and DAC and the software is actually pretty good and easy to use.  Then if you find you enjoy streaming you can get a better DAC or a better Streamer with a DAC built in.

All the best.

thanks for all the great recommendations.  I've been trying to learn about some of these brands and products.  lots of the info on the product pages is just gibberish to me, but I think today I figured out the difference between a server and a transport. Seems like there's a number of decent entry level options, starting with the WiiM Ultra, but I've also got my eye on the used market and there are plenty of choices in my price range including a Lumin U2 mini right near me.  

I was in the same situation 8 yrs ago; knew nothing of the digital side/path, other than sticking a CD in and pushing play.

I would 2nd allenf1963 post. I used a Bluesound Node for 6 yrs. For an entry level price it is great. Two yrs ago was visiting my local Audio store looking at room traps, walked out with an Aurender streamer and Berkely DAC....my last components for my digital path.