New streamer? N150 vs U2

@txp1  I am one of the people you mentioned who is returning to a Node because of the app.  I sold my Node 2i and moved to a miniDSP SHD with the Volumio app/ OS.  Volumio was a very bad experience, completely overshadowing any SQ improvement from the SHD hardware.  As a result I am very wary of streamer software/UI/app quality.  Improvements in SQ are useless if the user experience is degraded.

I have a Peachtree Gan 1 on order and it comes with a new Node.  I'll look into the Node upgrades (LPS) mentioned in this thread.  Someday I'll move up, but I will take my time - and pay close attention to the app.  Best of luck.

Also tried Volumio. Yuck. 

@lalitk Amen brother…

As I said in my first post, easy way to settle this quandary is to pick a player from Lumin, Aurender or Innuos lineup and listen in your system.

Excellent input from everyone, thank you all very much! So much experience. I’ve learned a lot and I’m sure that other audiophiles will also in the future. I keep rereading this thread.

I’ve planned to get an EtherRegen for quite a while but am obviously waiting for them to get the next generation of it to market. I also need to make the one-box or not decision. Fortunately for me this technology just keeps improving. Unfortunately it seems that almost all high end equipment keeps increasing in price, sometimes significantly so.  
 

@wsrrsw thanks for pontificating!  And I too love the artwork.

Probably 75% or more of my listening is jazz, bass jazz, sax jazz, contemporary jazz, fusion jazz, hard bop. The rest is a mix of classic rock and more modern rock.

The streamer & DAC I decide on, or the one-box streamer/DAC will need to be great for jazz and rock.

I use Qobuz, Tidal, Radio Paradise, and ESPECIALLY JazzRadio premium streams.  The streamer must be able to accept and retain a custom URL from JazzRadio.  I should have mentioned this in my original post.