New streamer needed

I’ve been in kind of a similar situation relative to price range. Only that I’m looking to upgrade my current streamer. Which sounds great, but tends to be quite glitchy (Pi2 design Mercury). Within that contending field - Volumio Rivo, Lumin U2 Mini, used Aurelic or Aurender etc. But why not Eversolo DMP A6 Masters edition or even the A8? The A8 is a kind of all in one. Not the direction I’d prefer to go, but is supposed to be so good in its components and design to be worth it.

The British Audiophile did some nice comparisons between the A8 and and (I think) Aurelic streamer: 

Thanks for all the suggestions of brands and models. Not sure about the Eversolo, but the Volumio Rivo seems to match very will with the Merason Frerot. However, I prefer a streamer with the option of adding an internal 4tb ssd card. And then, of course, is the question is how it will natch with the rest of my system (Audible Illusions Modulus 3A, Belles SA-100, Audio Physic Caldera. Still some work to do to find this out...

mdalton, indeed there are many threads on the topic. However, my initial question about this was related to the fact that my current (older) streamer broke down and I then connected my (older) Accuphase transport to my DAC, which sound blew me away. What should I invest, and which ones to check, to keep me blown away :-)

WiiM Pro Plus…it’s good…

@ghdprentice 

I curious as to your statement about the future of Roon.  I am not a Roon user and have no axe to grind here.   I have seen it used and while it impressive I just simply don’t need it.

  I have wondered why a company like Apple doesn’t torpedo it. Apple Music service and Qobuz both seem to offer Roon like features about music that you choose to stream.  Roon will integrate stored music into the streamed music in your library, but Apple also does this with music that I had previously scanned into iTunes or purchased from iTunes.  It would seem to me to be easy to access any stored music and then integrate it into the UI, thus obviating the need for Roon