Best streamer for a returning audio guy

My recommendation is as follows:

1) old Mac mini or MacBook Pro with optical out

2) project dac box s2+
3) ifi elite power supply

4) wire world (or other equal) optical cable

I much prefer optical because of low noise (vs usb) but it does limit you on high resolution files. 
 

this setup is cheaper than the qutest and has some better qualities. 
overall the qutest is better dac but this setup covers the streamer as well and will cost 2/3 of the price of the qutest. 
 

the ifi elite power supply is really nice takes the dac box s2+ to another level. 

Elite power supply gives some improvement to the qutest as well.

Do you by chance use a Roku device for your television?  If so, you can stream music through the Roku using Spotify.  My Roku is 2016 variety with optical audio output to preamp.  Fairly simple setup, you control Spotify on the Roku using your Spotify ap on the iphone, long as it's connected to the same network.  Easy Google search to set this up.

After that "free" intro to streaming I moved up to a previously-loved ebay Bluesound Node.  Prefer my turntable with a good LP, but honestly I like the Bluesound about as good as my CD player (and the music choices are endless).  

I have old amps and speakers, be interesting to see if I can hear the difference from a Bluesound to the next step up.  

2psyop +1 - except don't use a Cat 5 cable; use a Cat 7 or 8 cable.  They are very cheap.

Firstly, I am a relative newcomer to this forum, just trying to get a bit of diversity in my audio discussion. Not surprised and perhaps a little disappointed to see there’s the same argy-bargy here as many other places.

Back on topic, I dipped into streaming a couple of years ago, after many years of mucking around with hi-rez digital files on computers and pro-sumer ADC/DACs. I am adding to a pretty good analog system, but I thought I might start modestly and also considered the Bluesound, but quickly went to considering others such as the Cambridge, then other products such as entry level Auralic and Lumin, pondered the Auralic Altair G1, to cut a long story short, ended up with three boxes at the Auralic G2.1 level, which has been very satisfying, but that’s just me wanting to get a really good outcome, which for me is equal to and often superior to analog. 
if you want to dip your toes into streaming, by all means, go the Bluesound and see what it gives to you, I just wanted a “no regrets” outcome.

I like you am an old stereo guy updating my 2 channel system. You mentioned that you are also looking for a new pre-amp so I thought I'd mention that I added a Emotiva BasX PT1 Stereo PreAmp to my system a couple months ago and couldn't be happier.