Streamer Upgrade

@willg1985 

With respect to supporting Spotify.  I understand.  That is why I maintain an old Bluesound N100 (the original cube) in my main rig, just so that when my son is in town he can access Spotify.  

Sonore makes a line of music streamers and the ultraRendu is a good one. It's only $999 and sounds much better then Bluesound.

I find that using a streamer lets your DAC sound it's best. The streamer dosn't change your DACs sound it just eliminates all the noise that keeps your DAC from it's true sound.

I have an Auralic Aries G1 and am quite happy with it's performance. I stream exclusively through WiFi and have never had an issue with it dropping out or sounding compromised by a poor connection. Auralic states that they dedicated a lot of focus on performance over WiFi matching direct ethernet wiring. 

I sent a question into Auralic prior to purchasing the streamer and their head engineer replied directly back to me the same evening answering my question so it would seem that they are focused on good customer communication. At least in my one instance. 

I also have a Bluesound Node 2i that I use on another system and while I think it is a great streamer for the cost I do like the Lightning DS application from Auralic over the Bluesound streaming app. With Roon that most likely is not a priority for you. 

I have never compared Numin, Aurender or Innuous to the Auralic products so won't make any comments but I am sure they all make very good streamers in comparison. Price and features could be a deciding factor. 

My recommendation would be a used Aurender, or Aurlic Aries G… the Lumin sounds great… but many are unhappy with the interface. Both Aurender and Aurlic have great interfaces. 
 

I have owned an Auralic and now own two Aurenders, after listening to the N10. Aurender only makes streamers…their flagship is the most used in audio shows. They are the company to beat. Great customer service.