Streamer wanted

My upgrade from streaming from a Dell laptop to my current Roon Nucleus Plus server was one of the best improvements in my system sound quality.  The USB port on the server is "dead quiet" and pairs really well with my DAC and external hard drive.  One of my friends has the Roon Nucleus server and (to me) it has the same fine sound quality and is in the price range you quoted.

One of the great things about the Roon servers is that they come configured with the Roon core and all you'd need to do is add an Android or iOS or Windows app to control it (or all three).  Mine has been "rock solid" with backups and updates.

@rvpiano -- just wondering if you ordered the U1 Mini with an external power supply. My friend who owns the U1 Mini mentioned that adding one had a pretty substantial improvement in performance. I know some dealers can modify the unit to make it work with something like the sbooster. 

Teac NT-505 would be bigger animal at this price range. 

I canceled my order
I determined that the Lumin is too sophisticated for my needs. I only want a streamer that is hi res capable (which for whatever reason my Arcam RPlay is not) and has improved SQ. I don’t need to access stored files or transfer a CD collection. Also, I learned that I would need an external WiFi source to run the Lumin. I don’t want to make this so complicated.
So, I’m just looking for a simple streamer with better sound quality.
I would consider retrying the Bluesound because I know it is hi res capable, but when I made a head to head comparison with my Arcam, the Arcam sounded better.
.

Arcam has a better DAC but a total crap user interface.

@rvpaino: not sure what youre looking for and your process seems random.
On one hand, you dropped $2K on a Lumin then cancelled it. Then, OTOH, you bash the $500 BS without even trying to find the right DAC for it that would actually get you to around $2K and some righteous SQ.

Chord Qutest, Benchmark, Mytek...get a DAC, man.
Plus, do some research!

Yiu get what you give you and your details and goals are hidden hence your results here are dubious.

Youre making apples/bananas comparisons.