Solo streamer

@lanx0003  You seem to be missing the point.  The OP likes his Dac3, and I agree with him.  His question is about a STREAMER.  You seem to have cherry picked one negative review regarding the Benchmark, despite the many positive ones.  You may not know it, but not everyone thinks that newer is better.  Some are in love with the dac in their older cd players.

Did you know that the OP is a classical music aficionado and believes that his dac renders the music correctly?  Many agree with him.  For example:

"I concluded my May 2004 review of Benchmark's DAC1 by calling it an "audiophile bargain." The same applies to the DAC3 B. Highly recommended for Class A+ in Stereophile's Recommended Components, along with the DAC3 HGC, which Benchmark says sounds identical.—John Atkinson"

FWI this is from March 2023 https://www.stereophile.com/content/benchmark-dac3-hgc-da-preamplifier-headphone-amplifier-benchmark-dac3-b 

a hard wired connection is not feasible for me and Aurender does not have WiFi connectivity.

As others have said, all is not lost!  Get Mesh or a Wi-Fi extender and go hardwired from that to the Aurender.  @ghdprentice uses a Wi-Fi extender with his uber-expensive Aurender with great results.  Plus, you really don’t wanna use any streamer with pure Wi-Fi because the Wi-Fi receiver in the streamer can greatly compromise performance so you’ll be better off using a mesh/extender no matter what streamer you use.  Stick with the N200!

Thanks for the tips.  I’m reconsidering.

Complicating the issue is that I’m now liking  my current streamer and don’t know how much better the Aurender will be.

We’ll see!

You’ll know when you hear it. Give the N200 at least 10 days to settle by running it 24/7 (just set the queue to repeat all tracks). Don’t jump to conclusions too early. 
The included USB cable is actually not terrible so if you don’t have a good USB on hand, I wouldn’t hesitate and use the “stock” cable. 
 

I used powerline adapters for a few years and don’t recommend going that route.  I ultimately bit the bullet and paid someone to Ethernet wire the home ( and simultaneously install an antenna for OTA TV signals, as both of these required going deep in my attic and was beyond my physical abilities to do so).

  Coincidentally I had to interrupt the Ethernet connection for one of my VXN streamers and go WiFi (I was painting where the room where the Ethernet comes out of a wall).  I thought that the WiFi connection was a tick sonically below the wired connection.

  The OP was prepared to spend a chunk on a new streamer, I think in the 8 K range.  For a fraction of that he can pay for a first class Ethernet setup.  I think that it will make his current streamer a bit better, and if he ever decides that he really needs a component that requires hardwire, he is all set to go