Suggestion for $10K soup to nuts digital?

@m-db  Unsurprisingly (for Agon forum), not a single post with feedback on how to address the incoming ISP aspects.

You will achieve significant downstream upsides by moving away from your cable provider's modem/router and xFi pod. Replace these with self-procured modem > mesh router > mesh satellite.  This essentially mimics / mirrors your current Comcast/Xfinity setup...but will return much better sound quality. 

The above investment still leaves a significant percentage of your 10K budget for a network player and DAC. You will, of course, recoup your investment (over time) as you will not be paying a monthly fee for the Comcast/Xfinity equipment.

Feel free to PM me for specifics.

I have Comcast/Xfinity coaxial cable to their modem/router in an Apple equipped office approximately twenty feet from a remote xFi Pod with 2 ethernet outputs next to my rack. If this source is adequate what would you suggest next with a $10K budget?

@david_ten

Great advise! I intentionally held back any advice on network optimization in my original post. For all we know, the OP may ends up with Node 2 or equivalent which seems to be gold standard for many newbie’s and Vinyl fanatics…LOL!

We both know from our experience, everything matters!

Streamer / Dac I will never ever buy Lumin  Aurender, and Auralic

they’re too overhyped and plainly ugly lol 😂 

|  I am new to digital, but the last millennium CD player always worked fine.

Oh - so you want to also be able to play your physical CDs, rather than rip them to the computer? You have a nice network setup already with a Mac in one room and the stereo in the other. I have the same. I use an optical Rendu as an endpoint to erase any OCD feelings about noise entering the system - deep breathing or therapy likely work for this as well. You can run all the software on your Mac from anywhere. As to the last millennium approach of browsing through your CDs or records, pulling one out, and popping it in the player, no modern software or streamer captures that experience (in my opinion). If you want to stream, then you no choice other than to submit a different intuitive interface with music.

@m-db, you’ve got a nice problem to have. My first suggestion would be to get the best DAC that you can afford. The best DAC that I could afford in my digital music streaming system is a Chord Hugo TT2. It’s a world-class DAC that you can plug two pairs of headphones into simultaneously, and connect to some active bookshelf speakers that would be office appropriate without taking up tons of shelf space. 

For a music server I’d simply get a Roon Nucleus because it has the best user interface on the market right now. Plug an Ethernet cable into it, then run a USB from it to the TT2 and you’re in business. With Apple both units are plug and play. You can pick out almost anything you want to hear using an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac.