Quality streaming for newbie

Great point n80!
I’d like to stay under 2k but $2500 max.

I just picked up the BlueSound Vault 2i and it is awesome .  I set it up around 6 and have been listening all night....  through speakers and now through headphones as it is past midnight.  Sound quality is great, even better through my M51 DAC.  

Other than ripping CD's it has the same feature set as the Node 2i.   I have wanted one of these for a while and it was worth every penny.  It tool about 5 minutes to set up, is easy to use , and works flawlessly. 

@griff69 well the LUMIN U1 Mini is a pure streamer at USD $2000. Or as audiotroy mentioned there is the D2 at USD $2300 which has a built-in DAC for analog outputs. So if the D2's DAC stage sounds good to you, you can get both a streamer and DAC within your price range.

And you could always use a different DAC later while still benefiting from the D2's streaming software and hardware by using its digital outputs.

If you want to use AirPlay (for Apple Music) then there are dozens of products to choose from as almost every mainstream consumer brand has released products with AirPlay support. It really comes down to the user experience and differences in sound quality.

If you can play around with the apps or watch online videos of the different user interfaces, that might help. Although if your only intent is to use AirPlay that may not be an issue.

I’m using a PS Audio PerfectWave DAC MK2 with a Mac Mini and they sound heavenly together for streaming purposes.