I would second the recommendation to look at Roon. Roon in extremely easy to setup (the networking bits “just work”) and It has the perfect architecture that you are looking for (Nas for storage, Central DB, control from phone, play through hardware streamer, best sound quality etc).
Mainly, You can start with the pieces you already have, and grow into the final perfect setup, as you add each piece of the puzzle mentioned above.
For now, setup Roon on the laptop (or on the Nas, if it’s powerful enough), pointing to music on the Nas, and Use the laptop itself acts as the streamer. This allows you to control the music from your phone or any other computer in the house.
When you are ready, add a dedicated streamer (Bluesound Node 2i), so the laptop (Roon core) isn’t tethered to the streamer, this improves sound quality, and looks cleaner.
Eventually you can move the Roon Core to a dedicated pc (Intel Nuc) or repurpose the laptop when you upgrade to be a dedicated Roon Core, for 24/7 uptime, and potentially better cpu.
That will then be a great setup with few compromises.
I too balked at the lifetime price of Roon for many years, but eventually realized all the other options were compromises, and was spending more money on piecemeal upgrades. Even though that delay in thinking cost me the price jump to 700, I have no regrets, except the thought that if I was going to pay for lifetime anyway, there was no point in delaying..
Mainly, You can start with the pieces you already have, and grow into the final perfect setup, as you add each piece of the puzzle mentioned above.
For now, setup Roon on the laptop (or on the Nas, if it’s powerful enough), pointing to music on the Nas, and Use the laptop itself acts as the streamer. This allows you to control the music from your phone or any other computer in the house.
When you are ready, add a dedicated streamer (Bluesound Node 2i), so the laptop (Roon core) isn’t tethered to the streamer, this improves sound quality, and looks cleaner.
Eventually you can move the Roon Core to a dedicated pc (Intel Nuc) or repurpose the laptop when you upgrade to be a dedicated Roon Core, for 24/7 uptime, and potentially better cpu.
That will then be a great setup with few compromises.
I too balked at the lifetime price of Roon for many years, but eventually realized all the other options were compromises, and was spending more money on piecemeal upgrades. Even though that delay in thinking cost me the price jump to 700, I have no regrets, except the thought that if I was going to pay for lifetime anyway, there was no point in delaying..