Suggestions for a streamer only (I have a great DAC)

I'm going to be 'that' guy who tells you that you can WAY over pay for a pure streamer

If that's been your listening experience then I believe you but you represent a tiny minority. Reading on  this  and other forums on the topic of streamers the overwhelming number of  listeners who've heard/owned Blue Node say there's significant sound quality improvement to be gained from moving toward  better quality servers/streamers.

Blue Node seems an unusual match with the dCS DAC. I believe that the OP can likely  do noticeably better within his given budget. 

Charles 

Since OP is streaming from TIDAL (and likely subscribed at the TIDAL Hifi Plus level), he'll want to look for a streamer that supports MQA to get the most out of TIDAL Masters, etc.. The Bluesound Node is one such device, and it's been a great addition to my Rega/Dynaudio system. Obviously, it's way below the OP's budget, but the results are consistently outstanding. Just an excellent value.

For your budget and best sound I would get a Roon Nucleus and a Bricasti M5. The Roon Nucleus is a computer that runs one piece of software. Roon Core. Nothing else. It has a power button and a couple setting that anyone can walk you through when you setup the unit. This needs to be on your network, near your router.

The M5 needs an Ethernet connection. It does not need to be near the Nucleus and takes care of the player part of the process.  It gets your files ready to go to the DAC.

This will sound amazing. Be on budget. And can be purchased from a few retailers with 30 day return policies.

@verdantaudio,

with all due respect: if you think Roon Nucleus is a good streamer, you owe it to yourself to listen to an InnuOS Zen or Zenith using the InnuOS Sense app in non-Roon mode. The SQ doesn‘t even compare!

There are some good thoughts here.  I’m generally in agreement with @ghdprentice in that a well optimized streaming setup will surprise you with how good it can be.  You might never want to spin a disc again if you put some effort into it up front.  The rest of your system seems to warrant this effort. Yes, there is a world of difference going upstream. Contrary to what some claim, going upstream in the quality of your streamer can yield substantial - and readily audible improvements.  

I will offer a few other things to consider:

1) There’s seems to be some consensus that Qobuz generally sounds better than Tidal.  To my ears, it sounds a lot better. The libraries are different, both are vast.  

2) Auralic’s lighting DS is more than fine.  I actually like it as an app better than Aurender’s conductor app (I had Aurender for several years and then moved to Auralic’s Aries G2 which I found Iiked better than Aurender’s N100 and N10. I haven’t heard the W20 SE which @ghdprentice has but understand it to be spectacular.

3) the Bluesound app is also fine but frustrating at times. I have a Node 2 in a kitchen system.  Candidly, Auralic Lightning DS and Aurender Conductor provide a much better experience and both are seamless with Qobuz and/or Tidal.

4) Roon provides the best user interface by far, but in my experience there is a sonic penalty to using it. Of course, it may be that they’ve somehow worked this out and others may disagree.  But it’s a fairly common observation if you do some reading. To me, Auralic via LDS sounds substantially better than the same stream via Roon.  Since digital music is data played back via software and hardware, this is not too surprising. In any case, for those looking to optimize streaming performance, the native apps might give you a better experience. 

5) Pay attention to your network hygiene.  It’s not that bits are lost or that jitter is introduced. Parasitic noise is, however, and you only really notice it when you hear it without.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.