Aurender music servers: higher priced ones sonically better?

I did all sorts of software and format changes. I doubt there was much I didn’t try. Bought a bunch of high res files. Tried from the MacBook, USB storage, network storage. All sorts of interconnects. The more I think back the more stuff I realized I tried.

But none of this is very specific and none addresses the ground isolation, jitter or processor load (which generates noise) which are the critical factors to optimize. I suspect that is all your streamers do - all the necessary EE blocking and tackling. But hat can all be done to Roon running on  NUC with a RPi bridge - with much effort. Or similarly, some can be addressed with a Laptop especially (since they can run on battery).

That's what I'm trying to understand - and i think is good learning for other starting down the path. Throwing money at it certainly can solve the problem, but takes, well, a pile of money.

I was an IT guy with a real passion for high end audio. Most of this experimentation I did over a period of ten years. If I had a good memory and an interest I could reconstruct all the fiddling I did. I have not either. But dealing with jitter (hence using a USB DAC that re-timed the bit stream), shutting down all other processes, heavy power conditioning… etc we’re all stuff I did. Still in comparison to a good streamer it was totally inadequate. I am sure given the amount of money i spent trying to tweak my pc based systems I could have bought a good streamer and had better sound much sooner. Today, even more so, since streamers are so much more available. Sorry, that is about as deep into the weeds as I want to get, sounds like you would like a more technical answer… once I have an epiphany like I did with streamers I leave the past go and move on. 

I believe if you really spent an incredible amount of time at this futzing around you could get close to a low end streamer… yes. That is why I spent so much time at it… to save money. The problem is PCs are simply not created with noise reduction and power conditioning in mind. A good streamer is built from the ground up with that in mind.

If you enjoy futzing around with NUCs and different components… that is great. What ever you enjoy. I used to enjoy evaluating the sound of interconnects and cables. But for a normal folks looking for as good of sound reproduction as they can get within there budget then a streamer is likely to be the path to take. Unfortunately, really high end sound is expensive. Cheaper today than it was twenty years ago. Just trying to be helpful to most folks here. When you have some time, go borrow a good quality streamer from a dealer.

The problem is PCs are simply not created with noise reduction and power conditioning in mind.

Correct.  Which is why i advocate simply isolating it and creating a dedicated low noise power supply on the "clean"side and allowing the Mac streamer to be dirty.  trying to fix the computer will have diminishing returns (but running of battery makes  a huge difference, with lots of limitations).  This is why i wanted to know precisely what you tried and didn't.

NUCs are actually quite good if dedicated and with dedicated,and split/isolated power.  RPis make good bridges (but start with the Pi4 or you will fight a lot of architectural issues).  I mean, have you looked at what's inside the box of many streamers?  Often a NUC or a Pi (as embedded).

itsjustme
Sorry went by what I was told about  Roon should have read it for myself if you could post a link for the post so I can read it 
thanks for the good comments on my system 

i don't know if i can find my old post - its a needle in the haystack. You might search on my user name.  But most of it is blocking and tackling - clean power, clean grounds, isolation, keeping nosy digital devices away from sensitive analog ones, keeping the processing distributed (just like Roon recommends), etc.

That said, Roon is a frustratingly complex, but very powerful streaming solution.  It is sold as a full server (Nucleus) or as software that you cna load on your computer or build a dedicated server as I did - but in the end, its a streaming server with vastly more capabilities than anything you can buy from "fill in the blank". In fact some high end servers ARE in fact Roon, embedded.

Unlike most streaming servers you can serve multiple independent zones (rooms, systems), or synchronize them - AND control the timing priority for those synched zones.  For each, with enough computer power, you can correct for room abnormalities, although this is a needlessly difficult process (like much of Roon IMO).

I did look at my own history... and can't find the needle int he haystack.  Sorry.