Waht is the best streamer for the money under $2500 (no DAC or storage required).

Although the OP has already gone the PS audio route the Aurender n100 is a superb streamer and server with up to 4gb of internal storage available.
The only reason I moved on was Roon.
Aurender and Roon do Not Play well together, stemming from Aurender unfortunately who will not allow Roon to be the control software rather than Conductor.
Shame really as the SQ was fabulous and the Conductor app was pretty good although still much better on iOS than Android.

@uberwaltz - Yes, I would love to try Aurender + Roon, but as I understand it, that's very unlikely to ever happen.

Mike
Prior to selling my n100 I had multiple email conversation with Aurender regarding this aspect.
They were pretty adamant at the time that they considered allowing Roon to take control could lead to a reduction in SQ and were not prepared to do it as their reputation would be the one on the line.
After that is when I decided to sell the n100 as nearly all the rest of the streaming players were Roon Ready.

fwiw - Im currently running a Cambridge CXN v2 streamer into a JL audio Cr-1 to a Mcintosh MA7900 integrated to B&W 805D4s - I am very happy with the Tidal Connect quality esp their “Master” recordings. 

Would I notice a markable difference in any of these “higher end” streamers?

this post got me thinking  

 

 

I second the Teac 505