@tlh28 welcome to the streaming journey, it’s awesome to have such a vast category of music at your finger tips. The ability to get streaming sound quality on par with analogue is achievable. It can be a finicky journey though. Clean power supplies, jitter free Ethernet or Fiber Optic signals often dominate discussions. Do a search on this topic as there are a lot of threads on it and there are a lot of varying opinions.
General rule of garbage in and garbage out applies with streaming, that’s where having a quality streamer and power supply for the digital chain is key. Once you have that, tons of debate on if streamers really play a role in overall sound quality. Some will swear they can make a big difference, others would point toward say a Blusound Node 2i with an upgraded power supply and say going beyond that is a fools errand.
Most agree that in the digital chain, a DAC will play a bigger roll in the sound quality and sound signature than a streamer. Separates are a great idea, makes it a lot easier to upgrade or simply tweak your digital chain by swapping out DAC’s. DAC’s are also a rabbit hole, there are a lot of different designs, R2R, Tube Staged, FPAG, different DAC chip manufactures, Sabre, AKM.
Node 2i is where many, me included start their journey but some of the other recommendations are also really good. I would potentially shift a bit, but a used streamer from Aurilac or Lumin, both dedicated to the digital market, spend your budget on the streamer, use the DAC you have in your CD player for now. You’ll then be in a great spot to upgrade your DAC but you may find there is no need to.
Important when you look at streamers to look for streamers that have a variety of outputs and understand, which output provides the best sound quality, synergy between a streamer and DAC’s are key, some DAC’s will sound best in a fully balanced system or when using a USB input, some streamers are designed to sound best using one of the several output options. The App that you use to manage the streaming is huge, don’t overlook that. If you like the interface of the App for the streamer you are using, things will be fantastic, if you don’t or the manufacture doesn’t support updates, improvements and hasn’t developed a serious App to manage streaming, even if things sound good, you’ll likely be unhappy. The Node has a great app, probably in my opinion the easiest to navigate, most flexible on the different streaming services supported. Aurilac and Lumin have great Apps, little more finicky than the Node but I think overall the quality of their streamers offsets the ease of use / flexibility of the Node App.
Good Luck, read up on all the different opinions and find the solutions that work best for you. Don’t sleep on used gear, I think you can land a streamer used that you won’t have to upgrade anytime soon which would be a great foundation to start with.
