Educate me on music streamers, please.

DCS Network Bridge:  I was looking for the highest level of streaming quality with native Deezer support.   The NB gets almost universally good reviews and I got a really good price on a used unit that was local to me

I listen to 100% streaming, so I didn't need/want a server. 

I was really close to getting the Moon Mind2 - few owners out there, but the reviews I've seen, and owners I talked to, have been more than positive.

I considered dropping Deezer and going with Qobuz - and then getting a Lumin U1 mini with the external power supply mod.  But then the DCS came up for sale.  Very happy that I have what I consider excellent Deezer streaming in a single box.

Being wedded to Deezer limits the options available today.  There are many great servers, renderers, streamers, library software etc out there - you could spend months researching and demoing - but so few support Deezer.   Once Deezer is integrated with Rooon, those options will open up.

I suggest trying the Bluesound Node 2i.  Maybe that will meet your needs until Deezer is integrated in Roon.  If it doesn't meet your needs sonically, get the power supply upgrade, or demo the Moon Mind2.

Good luck!  Let us know what path you take and the results.

Doh!  We just cross-posted. 

Congrats on the Node 2i, @soundchaser.  I think it's a very low risk approach. 

Let us know your thoughts.

There are many streamers that will act as Roon endpoints. Realistically, Audirvana is computer only in my opinion, they say it’s DNLA compatible but that doesn’t seem to be the case in the real world. Plus, I can’t see why anyone would want to use both Roon and Audirvana since they both essentially do the same thing. The consensus seems to be that Audirvana sounds better than Roon, but Roon is way more compatible with external streamers. 

@crn3371 - I have been able to stream Audirvana to the Raspberry Pi without issue (DLNA).  

With regard to Audirvana vs. Roon, I like the sound much better with Audirvana.  I just don't like Roon's sound at all.  I will, however, use Roon because the UI is so much better and more entertaining.  Then I'll go to listen on Audirvana......

@soundchasr congrats on your Node purchase. Looking forward to hearing about it.

I don't if my experience will be helpful to you, but here goes...

I used Audirvana for a while. Tried Roon and found myself going back to Audirvana a bunch. Roon's interface was more friendly than Audirvana at the time, but the latter sounded better. 

Anyway, I ended up getting a Moon ACE and found the MiND2 to be really convenient and user friendly. After a few months of breaking in the ACE, I did some A/B tests with Audirvana and found streaming with the ACE/MiND2 much more lively and enthralling. I've been a subscriber to Tidal for a while. I've tried Qobuz a bunch of times, but always end up cancelling and sticking with Tidal. The sound difference to me is negligible. The main reason I've kept Tidal is for the catalog (sometimes I find some really out of left field 90's indie releases on it). If I was into classical, I'd have stuck with Qobuz. 

I do have a bunch of hi-res audio files on an external. When I want to listen I just plug it into my MacBook and connect to the amp via UPnP. It works great and sounds great. 

Hope this was helpful.