Help With Streamer - Aurender, Auralic, HIFI Rose, Eversolo A10, etc.

You will find people recommend the streamer brand they have or have used a lot.  There are quality streamers in your price range form Innuos, Auralic, Aurender to name a few well known brands.  You really need to decide if you want a DAC in it.  You will get advice if you let us know what DAC you have or plan to use.  An Auralic Altair G1.1 for example, has streamer, DAC, analog input and volume control (pre amp).  Not saying it is as great as separate Streamer / DAC and Preamp, but much more simple.  Aurender makes quality streamers, some with DACs but I feel is known for its streamers.  All of these brands have their own software to organize and select your music.  You can get a streamer with or without an internal hard drive, or easily add one.  Easier still is to put your music on an external hard drive that most of these streamers have a USB input for connection.  This makes your music very portable and easier to move from your computer to the hard drive.  Innuos is loved by many here and already recommended.  From your comments I doubt you would hear the difference between comparably priced units from any of these brands; but you will notice the difference in software.

I recommend looking at Auralic Lightning, Aurender Conductor and Innuos Sense software examples and see what draws you in from a user interface perspective.

I love my Aurender.   Have used Innuos, Bluesound (which I still own) and Eversolo 

Since having an entry streamer like Bluesound and a really good one like my Aurender N200 all I can say is it comes down to support.  

Aurender is incredibly well built and has for me been super stable.  Support is top notch , they can remotely access the device and add or delete software if there is a problem.   

I used Innous in a room environment and thought it sounded great but I can't tell you about the sense software

My Dad has an Eversolo A6 Master and honestly I feel li,e its mi e because I have spent so much time troubleshooting it.  Worked fine for 11 months , then a software update rendered its USB out useless with the DAC it was used with for almost a year.   Their support is non existent. The worst I have (N)ever experienced

Their support is their forum or revert back to previous firmware and wait for another revision.   3rd revision, 6 months later no fix.  Anyone spending $4k on anything from Eversolo is wasting their money.   Throwing it away if you are expecting support.   No after. Warranty repair either.  

Want real support?   Aurender and Innuos.  Maybe HiFi Rose , maybe others can speak to them.  

Happy Eversolo A8 user. It meets all your requirements and it’s easy to use.

I am over 70 and have followed the development of streaming / streamers over the last couple decades. It is not overly complicated, if you do not want it to be. The good news is that you can skip the many intermediary steps and go right to the highly reliable, high quality sound you can get today,

I have owned Aurlic Aries, and now own two Aurender. I have also heard the Rose and many others. I recommend Aurender. Conductor is a great app for control.

First it would be really helpful to know what other equipment you have. But assuming for now that you have high quality and high resolution equipment, then the sound of a CD, ripped file, stored file on NAS and streaming will sound exactly the same with a good streamer.

In general, streamers are like any other high end audio component in that you get what you pay for. So, you do not want to get a streamer with a DAC if you don’t need one because you will be buying a lower quality streamer (extra function you are not using and more noise and interference in the box). Also, you do not want to spend less... if you can get away with it unless you do not care about sound quality. My $45K vinyl leg sounds the same as my streaming digital leg. I don’t playback ripped files (although I have them on my streamer) or CDs... because they sound the same as Qobuz streamed music. Qobuz has over 10 million albums and over half a million are in higher than Red Book CD resolution. Years of delight and discovery and probably all of you old music.

So, I recommend as high a quality streamer as you can afford. In general, each jump in a thousand or so will result in better sound up to and beyond $20K. So you want to make sure your streamer is not your weak point (just and in vinyl playback). I have found that if you get the best in class for the money then the most cost effective investment is Streamer = DAC = Preamp = Amp... if you have vinyl also = phono stage = tt.

You are correct to want a good App to control your streamer. Aurender’s Conductor app is well respected and getting better daily. It works on iPhone, iPad and MacBook... I am sure on other non-Apple devices, Friends of mine have purchased other streamers... very expensive ones and complain about the app.

You get an Aurrender and you plunk it down, plug in the power cord, ethernet, preamp, and find it on your iPad. If you already have an Qobuz account (Yes, that is the one you want) all you do is logon once through the Aurender app and start playing music... no more fooling around. Done. Sounds like that is what you want.

You can get one with internal storage if you are bored and want to play with your computer. But you’re probably not going to be able to detect any difference in sound quality even with a bottom of the line Aurender N200. I would completely avoid antiquated means of playback: CDs, ripped CD, and purchased files. 

Aurender is easy to use and it sounds great. Amazing customer service so in an event you need help, they are very prompt. You will need a wifi extender.
If will probably discover that you don’t need to rip CDs or only get those that you can’t find on streaming done. You can use external drive on computer to rip.