Best streamer for a returning audio guy

Hi

Another vote for Blue Sound node. But definitely upgrade the power cord. Made a stunning improvement. I have two of them. Started with just BS Node. Later added Yggy DAC to one. 
I have Tidal and Qobuz. I listen to Qobuz more. Excellent HR selection of music. 
enjoy.

joe

Depending on your budget, I am pretty happy with my Lumin U1 mini with an external linear power supply.  

Perhaps it is just me I too have been in this hobby (?) for a long time 1968 to be exact. Unfortunately lost my vinyl in a flood.   That said  I have tested a bunch of low end streamers many mentioned above in this thread and i find thatto my ears  in my multiple higher end systems, they sound worse than going from my apple powerbooks through my separate quality DACs.  If budget is the constraint I would look to enter via the higher end used market or go the compturer to quality DAC route.     There are some used Cary DMS or DMC series streamer out there at a good price since they have recently introduced new models.   Some the older models allow you an output choice through a tube or SS end, depending on the sound you want for certain types of music 

The most expeditious and lowest cost way to get into streaming is to use a laptop PC and a USB DAC or USB audio interface.   The very most low cost unit is only $25 from Sweetwater.   The sound quality is equal to your typical consumer grade CD player.  This $25 device, along with one of your laptop PCs and you're good to go.

There are better quality DAC devices out there, but they cost more of course.  If you've got the budget, get one of those.  None of the music streamers will have a user interface as good as that which you'll have on a laptop PC.   The built-in Windows Media Center does a decent job.  Many people will drop about $50 or so for the JRiver media manager.     I'm a retired Linux engineer and only run Linux at home, so I run JRiver on a laptop running Linux.  I paid all of $200 for the laptop off of Craigslist.   Sound quality is every bit as good as any streamer and is solely determined by the DAC I run.  There are many good ones out there for $500 or less.  The Behringer I pointed you at is adequate and cheap.  If you like the sound quality you get from your CD player, then the Behringer will match that.

I'm another one for the Bluesound Node.  Simply the best price:performance ratio along with the best UX for any streamer.  I've owned both the Node 2i and the current Node and I've been extremely happy with them.  Buy a good power cable and RCA cables and it's a great sounding streamer.   

You can go up from there but it's hard to find things that are really worth the price increase.  I've owned the CXN at 2x the cost and it's a great streamer, but the lack of native Roon support caused me to return it to buy the newest Node.  At 4x the cost, the NAD option is pretty good.  Same UX as it uses the BluOS, but it's not any better sounding then the CXN at less the cost.  The Arcam also falls into the category of costing more then the CXN with not as good SQ.  The Lumin D2 is excellent at 5x the cost of the Node, and is where I'd upgrade to as you're not sacrificing anything but it's a huge price jump.  The HiFi Rose streamers are also good sounding, but very glitchy at a high price.  The Simaudio Moon 280d is amazing, but very expensive and the UX isn't as good unless you're running Roon.  

Personally, my reference system runs the Moon 280d and my secondary system is running the current Bluesound Node.  I'm very happy with both units, but if I do upgrade the next thing will be going from the Node to a Lumin D2.