Combination streamer and music server…without DAC

I have owned 5 streamers / bridges and listened to perhaps 20 more. Starting at the bottom end the iFi Zen Stream sounded very good but was hell to live with, The Stark sounded wonderful but was worse, totally incompatible with my Mac environment even the dealer couldn't make it work. The Marantz was so bright I stopped using it and went to a separate dac. Tried Sonore but eventually decided I like music not fixing problems every day. So onto other potential solutions beg, steal and borrow, Aurendar, Moon, Lumin, Cambridge Audio etc.  a mixed bag probably more due to DACs than any thing else.  Eventually decided 1, get a better DAC so Denafrips came on board, 2, don't ever use the screen so why pay for one and potentially have a component inside my box that is needed. Eventual solution, Lindemann Limetree Bridge.  Compared extensively in store against others costing 4, 5, 10 times more, I could tell no difference. Had a year works all day every day, sounds great, good app.

Lumin U1 is cheap now that Lumin released the U2, has a good app and support and most importantly you will need to spend double to best it.

+1 @oddiofyl 

Basically I did the same, I was happy with the Bluesound Vault 2 until I could step up to use an outboard DAC with it and then up to the Aurender N200. The other suggestions are good also, but you need to compare what functionality each company offers (or doesn't) with their product to what you want to be able to do.

Get the Aurender. I have the W20SE, there is no better streamer on earth. Highly recommend English Electric 8 switch network switch with Audiowise DC power filter on it, you’lll be in streamer heaven with Qobuz.

-Brandon

Not much discussion here of a computer plus Audirvāna or other software, with an outboard dac. This is very flexible and I have found the DAC makes a big difference. Chord Qutest has galvanic isolation on the usb. This sounds markedly better than an RPi with various hats, which I also tried.