15k for streamer and dac....how much on each?

Try a used Sonore OpticalRendu for under $1500. This is a streamer and not a music server. I use a $500 DELL computer for my music server. That server is in my guest room under a bed. No monitor, keyboard, or mouse is used. The audio systems in my home are far away from this cheap music server (computer).

This will sound as good as what most will tell you to use a dedicated server/streamer next to your DAC. This is because you will use Fibre Optic in this setup. 

I also use ROON to make my life easier.

For that $15K, you are looking at a potential Playback Designs DAC. Infact, that is my goal, but I will use a PlayBack Designs streamer that I got for $2k. It is also ROON READY and is identical to the Sonore OpticalRendu in what it is trying to do (when using the fibre Plink connector).

I would still be using the DELL computer in the guest room with the PlayBack Desings DAC. PBD sells a new streamer and server combo for $13k that you can keep next to your DAC. My cheaper combo is more financially palatable.

Personally would never spend more than $2k on a dac. Unless you’re so wealthy this is chump change. Dac tech changes so fast that DACs lose value faster than any other part of your system. Additional, the newer DACs crush the older DACs. I’d take a $600 smsl dac from 2024 over a $10000 dac from 2018 all day long.

I do not see DACs changing that fast. I think once jitter was tamed, DAC designs seemed to have plateaued. Maybe the only exception is FPGA based DAC which are easy to update for the manufacturer.

That $2k threshold for an excellent DAC is something I agree on. My Benchmark DAC3B is less than $2k. While not the greatest DAC it can be made to sound very nice on a warm system. My other DAC is the $2400 Schitt Yggi+ LIM and that DAC is amazing. I really have no complaints about that one.

As I said earlier in a post, no need to spend a lot on a streamer, especially if you use fibre optic just before the DAC.

Buy a used Lumin X1 DAC/Streamer for around $6k used and you have a very good DAC and a tremendous streamer. Best of all you have Fibre Optic as streaming option on the X1. I owned that DAC, and it was really good, I like the new Yggi+ LIM a bit more than the X1, but the X1 comes with that amazing fibre streamer.

You can get a network switch with fibre support for $100 - $200. One of my network switches cost me about $120 when new. Today, it is selling for $500 - $600, I think because audiophiles wanted it. It sounds the same as my other $75 network switch with fibre. Point is that you do not need to spend too much to get the highest quality streaming.

BTW - for me the streaming section of the X1 is worth the $6k you see on the used market. That thing is so useful if you have a few DACs or something like the PeachTree GAN1 unit which needs SPDIF with volume.