I have what I think is a pretty decent system (curious? see my profile). I decided to explore the streaming world in 2021 and bought a new node, which I am highly impressed by. It is far from perfect, but for a budget piece of equipment it makes the right concessions and never sounds worse than very good. Once the USB output became live I was able to take advantage of that and that too was nice.
In 2022 I decided that streaming for me was not a passing fad so I moved my Node to a bedroom system (where it performs magnificently!) and picked up an Auralic Aries G1. The difference between the G1 and the Node is .musically important, with the G1 being the better unit. Soundstage takes a major leap forward and the G1 is able to pull off a very neat trick- it has the ability to sound both detailed and warm at the same time. In the past I have found that is a trick usually reserved for the very best gear.
On a 100 point scale, the Node, using a good external DAC, can hit 85. The G1 hits 93. (my benchmark for the best streamer I've heard is a Naim 555 with an external power supply).