Just an update, I went through with the purchase of the Aurender N20 (mint, two months old as the seller upgraded to the N30, which his system definitely deserves…).
Even if it sounds equally good as my Zenith Mk3 + PhoenixUSB that will be a win, as my objective was to reduce boxes and cables. Hoping it will sound better though. That said I will list it in a few months and follow through with my plan, as I’m interested in the K50 and finally the MU1 as well. I may lose a bit of cash in the process but it’s worth trying these well respected machines.
Update: I keep forgetting to mention the upcoming Innuos Pulsar as well. I guess finding out how the other side of the fence sounds is intriguing. But the Pulsar could be a profoundly good product with it’s fancy power supply (sounds similar to Statement Nextgen PSU) and included PhoenixUSB Lite. That said I just recently started noticing how much better the files sound played from my Zenith Mk3, so local file support is an option I think I will want to keep, unless the Pulsar is so good at streaming it actually succeeds in removing the need for local file storage altogether. But, no one actually knows how good it is yet. The Statement Next Gen is supposed to be way ahead of the regular Statement according to those that heard it or have it, which could mean great things for the Pulsar if it shares aspects of the power supply design.