Streamer vs. new mac mini for 2 channel system

Thank you everyone for your responses.   I think I'm going to get the lumin u1 mini for streaming Roon and find some computer alternative for streaming YouTube, SoundCloud and Netflix etc.  

Does anyone know if I can access the lumin through my laptop? Or does it have to be a tablet, phone etc?

The latter part of my question is still mysterious to me.   Is there a mac option that allows me to use an optical out so I can switch from USB to optical and at least get a half ass signal to my Dac? 

Going full digital is not as convenient as I imagined.

I have just upgraded my MacMini 2012 model which was a dedicated music server having Roon core for my Bricasti DAC M12 with a Roon Nucleus Plus and the performance gain was very noticeable. It was not like a day and night difference but good enough for me to replace the MacMini.
My MacMini was a dedicated music server having Roon core. It had dual SSD drives, one drive dedicated to the OS and the other one had the music files. It had just one user application installed, Roon, and it was configured to stay on forever to ensure no interruption to music. I was using the ethernet route to talk to Bricasti DAC which is also an excellent Roon endpoint. The MacMini was placed in a different room to provide further noise isolation. Additionally I had Etherregen, an audiophile switch from Uptone Audio to filter out all network related noise from getting into Bricasti. I couldn’t be happier with the performance of my digital system and thought that I would have to spend a lot of money buying dedicated music servers like Antipodes or Innuos to beat this performance. However out of curiosity I tried a moderately priced Roon Nucleus Plus unit to compare its performance with MacMini and found it to be quite good. Compared to Nucleus Plus the MacMini sounded thin and edgy revealing the noise issue that most audiophiles attribute it to noisy computer processing environment.
My Nucleus Plus uses a dedicated Linear Power supply Keces P8 which in turn uses a moderately good power cable Nordost Heimdall II to connect to a Nordost distribution box. So there is a difference between MacMini and Nucleus Plus in the way they are powered. Whether a better power supply to the Nucleus Plus compared to the MacMini or Nucleus Plus being a purpose built component or both brings the performance improvement, I don’t know. Further I am not using the USB interface to connect to Bricasti DAC in either case and I have Etherregen in the chain to filter out any Network noise. So, in theory, there shouldn’t have been any performance difference between these two components but there is and I can’t explain the difference. What I can say for sure is that if I didn’t try Nucleus Plus I wouldn’t be dissatisfied with the performance of MacMini at all.
Thanks

My MacMini 2012 model (with 4 cores) regularly crashed with ROON. Now I was also running Convolution filters at that time on ROON. So maybe my extra requirements was the cause of all the crashes. I switched to a noisier DELL mini computer but put that on in another room.

I also have Fibre Optical streaming to USB. So my computer noise does not get into my DACs.

You might consider using both sources in your system. I also have a DAC with only one input, however the Inday Digital audio Switcher allows you to switch between 4 different digital sources. In my case the Mac Mini, a Node 2i, and Rega CD player. 

Running a Mac Mini as server vs Mac mini with top grade linear power supply is simply not remotely comparable. The issue with mm as server is it requires a lot of diy, not an out of the box solution. Audiophilelifesyle forum will point way to maximize mm as server, steep learning curve. Get it right and you have first rate server, no crashes, no issues. I can run dsd, way oversample, no Roon, Tidal, Qobuz, Synology NAS issues ever. Linear power supplies on ever single streaming component is where it gets really good.