DAC’s

“This is my first dac and the lumin t3 is prob the easiest to get into to start.”
@shtr74sims

Good call! The T3 has a pretty darn good DAC on board and LUMIN app is well laid out for easy browsing. You don’t have to mess with external NUC type of devices for ROON Core or ROON subscription. One very important factor which is often overlooked in purchasing a streamer is ongoing software maintenance and support from the manufacturer.

@JERRYG123 - your product may have some of that but (not really) but I asked to send me a Holo May DAC which has none of that.  Big difference between the two products.  But when I am finished with the Holo May, it will become a reference DAC that competes with most anything no matter what price range.

Happy Listening.

Good suggestions all around, but at the end of the day, the OP would do good to actually audition something in his system, live with it a few days, then decide.  No matter how good something sounds in one person's system and room, it may sound worse (or better) to them. 

I hope you could simply ask to borrow the Meitner for a few days (they might ask for a deposit) from the seller. Kick the tires so to speak. Good luck!

Whether someone spends $300, $3000, or $10,000 on a DAC is not my business.

Life is short. Do what makes you happy. But know that as you go up the food chain you ARE doing socially good things such as helping people stay employed, helping engineers push the level of performance, and helping them pay their bills, and yes, make charitable contributions.  God forbid we ever live in a country where the government places limits on what you think you want and can buy, otherwise we'd all be driving Chevy Sparks, not that there is anything wrong with one.  

Also like my P1 the T3 has a USB out so it functions as a VERY good transport as well - I often use my P1 out via USB or BNC to a Lampizator Baltic 3 for a different sort of presentation, so in a sense you are getting 2 for 1 with the T3 - indeed, I just ordered a Gustard R26 to see how an R2R DAC sounds in my system!

i think these posts provide a useful perspective on dac choice, especially at a high level of cost and performance

what does one want? do we want a dose of vacuum tube magic coming from the dac stage? are we prepared to, and do we welcome tube rolling, dealing with tubes and their attendant benefits and difficulties? or do we want as much straight wire with gain ’neutrality’ from our dac -- or do we want something more reminiscent of high level analog sound -- slightly softer, silkier, more ambient, little more diffuse? of course this leads us into the key aspect of personal taste, system and room synergy...

what about features? do we want dsp to tailor the customize the sound? do we want or need dsp room/bass management from our dac? do we have a great linestage already or do we want to delete that stage? do we have extra analog sources we still want to readily switch in to hear? do we want more boxes and cables, or do we value simplicity (applies very much to running roon, with core, cleansers and so on... lotsa boxes and power supplies, filters) in box count and setup?

additionally, what user interface, what streaming service, what streaming source... all are critical considerations (are we apple ios folks or android...tidal or quboz or...pc streamer or dedicated or integrated... and so on) ... less can be more, or more can be more... each brings its own good and bad... convenience and ease, or ultimate in sound for that last 1-2%, but lots of work, trouble, complexity to achieve it...