Just for kicks, I looked into that “432 Evo Essence” streamer/dac that you asked about earlier. It’s essentially a 432 Evo Standard (all the Evo are computer motherboards, which is not necessarily bad). They just put in an Asus Xonar Essence STX II PCI computer audio card and use that as the “DAC” (hence the name Evo Essence). This sound card originally sold for $200, but is now selling for $400-600 for some reason. I am intimately familiar with this card since I used to run this in my system many years ago. I also did modifications (upgraded capacitors / opamps). I used this for some years before I switched to using an external DAC. The stock Asus card uses Nichicon FG capacitors and somewhat low resolution op amps. This presents a very nice and pleasing sound, but it is not going to be super high resolution (due to the FG caps warming up the sound by slightly messing the high frequencies).
There’s another point of concern here. The Evo website has a bullet point on this item that says “Oven controlled clock for low jitter”. I have a gut feeling that this is a marketing falsehood. The Asus Essence card uses a TCXO, which is a temperature controlled clock. This is completely different than oven controlled clock (OCXO), which are generally much larger in size and require more power supply voltage. Unless Evo did significant modifications to this Asus card, I think they made a mistake on the description (I could be wrong here – others chime in if they have the definite knowledge).
Because of this, I think the Lumin T2 would be a highly superior all-in-one box. The Lumin T2 would be much higher resolution and more transparent as a DAC when compared to the 432 Evo Essence. It is entirely possible that this is the reason Audiotroy did not push the 432 Evo Essence dac when you asked about it.
A note on the Evo 432 products. They have a DSP mode called “432hz tuning”. This is another form of coloration where it changes the waveforms. I have never heard this, so I cannot say what it’s really doing to the music and if this is a good result. However, the 432 allows you to enable/disable this DSP mode whenever you want.
Further note on Denafrips. Based on listening and descriptions, the Denafrips generally have a thick sound that has a lot of “weight” to it. However, they are not the highest resolution / transparent DAC. Many prefer the Denafraps sound because of some reason or another. I have heard one person say that when they listen to music, they want a very pleasant sound that they can just relax/veg to. If you want a really forward / transparent / exciting sound, the Denafrips product may not be for you. It all comes down to personal preference. If this is what you’re looking for, then awesome, get a Denafrips.