Streamer only

A computer directly to a DAC is almost always a no go. Though I would not be surprised if the latest PlayBack Designs DACs are not affected.

Reason you do not want to hookup a general purpose computer directly to the DAC is that the electrical noise in the computer would travel into the DAC. You want to have a moat around the computer or use a dedicated music server, which is just an audio optimized computer.

I use a general-purpose computer ($500) to run my ROON Core. I also use a Sonore OpticalRendu to provide the moat. The oR uses fibre optic cable which is made of glass and glass cannot carry the noise from the computer, network, printers, security systems, that may be connected to your home computer network.

The OpticalRendu’s can be found for under $1000. Last used one I bought cost me $700. The other parts needed could add about $300-$500 more. This is very high-quality stream.

BTW - If you use ROON with my suggestion you would have a great and easy to use streaming setup.

I just bought Cambridge CXN V2 a week ago for $699. So far, so very good. I did not use the internal DAC. I feed it to external RME ADI-2 DAC and into my Schiit Freya+. And into Parasound A21 with Magnepan LRS+  speakers and dual HSU sub.

Nothing to loose starting out using a device you already have. You can compare that to your sound otherwise via say phono and decide from there. I use all WiFi connections personally. Different steaming apps on the same device alone can make a big difference in sound. As can DACs.  The only way to know is to try listen and compare. Cost alone is often not a good indicator of actual performance.

In addition to the budget examples already cited (e.g., RPi, Wiim), there are a bunch of well regarded products that cost between $400 and $1k.  They include the iFi Zen, the Volumio Rivo, Holo Red, Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra, the Primare Np5, and probably a few others.  I have both an iFi and a Pro-Ject. 

Lumin U1 mini