After being bitten by the streaming bug I purchased a Node as almost everyone does. While I don't have the budget for the higher end brands nor way up a specific brands line-up's.
So I purchased what I could afford, a Lumin U1 Mini (U2 Mini is now the current model and U1's are starting to show up preowned). The only thing the Node has in common with the Lumin is they are both classified as streamers lol.
Every element of my SQ improved dramatically!
The issue with streamers is like computers, they are/will outdate themselves faster than any other HiFi component.
And I agree, Roon is a must. I have demoed Tidal (with an MQA ready DAC), Qobuz and Amazon HD... All stand alone and in Audirvana (not for Amazon).
So, for me I dispelled my curiosity with MQA. 24/96 & 24/192 sound superior to me IMHO.
Roon/Qobuz is a clear winner in SQ....