Point of higher priced streamer?

“I do not use streaming service for my serious listening”

@vinpic, you’ve nailed it with your post 👇

“You shops for ‘mid-range’ streamers between 8-30K (what is top of the range then?) using Mola Mola Tambaqui dac whilst not knowing that the Tambaqui has a built in streamer... and ask the classic ‘a bit is a bit, why should I spend more’ questions to get folks excited on audiogon. The whole story seems built on shaky grounds, probably to amuse you whilst listening to music on a basic mp3 setup” 

I have a background in IT inc Networking for 45 years and technically like others have argued digital is just bits and bytes so as you are obviously a man of conviction and if it cannot be technically proven then you should not invest.  BTW I hope you apply the same logic to Audio Routers, Audio Ethernet cables and Audio Power connections (note weeks of arguments with my sons who are both electricians).

My experiences are;
- electrical just make sure you have good power into your hifi room (dedicated circuit is best) and good shielded cables, heavier than domestic plugs and power points (some hospital grade kit I find good), remembering 10A is what the components are rated, most except Power Amps typically don't pull 10A.
- Network any Tier 1 router products and cabling  (Cat6+) will do the job, its just about guaranteeing bandwidth, I also use Mesh Wifi 6, audio routers I just cannot make sense of ... 
- Streaming well I relied on my high end Laptop with a custom built USB cable and was happy for quite a while but had this nagging question on transports, brought some cheapy Yamaha Musicast devices, okay then upgraded to Node 2i's, i have 2 Grouped on separate systems and use them to fill my house with music and they are quite good, better sound than the Yamaha.  For my main listening systems I have a range of  sources which split on the output of the DAC to each system and a while back purchased a Lumin U1 Mini (cheaper in Hong Kong), I find a lot more detail in the music compared with my Laptop or Node 2i and have swapped them in and out.  Don't know what they do inside the unit technically but I am sold and it produces a better sound than my Vinyl (Lp12 and RP8).

I tested multiple "steamers" but didn't scratch the surface as there are so many out there. In the end, I felt the DAC made the biggest difference. I tested several combos but it is really futile as there are soooo many.

In the end, I chose a Streamer that checked off boxes for every major streaming service and a cd ripper. (I still buy cds along with the vinyl pressing if possible) At some point though, I will try other steamers.. its just last on my list right now.

When you use a Node 2i, it does the streaming.
You have a Bluesound app for managing your music and what you play over wifi, but you aren't streaming from your handheld device, so you don't degrade the sound with Bluetooth or Airplay. 
My Node 2i is connected to my 1 Gb fiber internet connection.
I'm sure the Node 2i doesn't compare to streamers costing 10-15 times as much, but for the money, it provides excellent SQ.

It's quite simple in my mind as I waited really long before I got one.

Generally well made servers sound as good, or better than your decent CD transport in playback.
 
And a good server should make no difference in playback quality if the file is pulled from streaming, or is a CD rip placed in the servers internal SSD, or it's from your NAS drive.

Once you find and hear a server brand like that (and there are a few that I have heard - Grimm Audio and SGM Taiko come to mind) then you will know why these servers are dearer.

I am sure there are lots of other streamers that do well too, that I may have not come across.