Computer out of music room


I am currently using an OLD iMac > Synology DS218+ > Orchard Audio Pecanpi > Hegel H160.  I am moving into town and downsizing my home so I need to get the computer out of the music room.  I am looking for suggestions on Streamer/DAC/server combination.  I am not very computer savvy and am looking something that is easy to use my budget is around $4000 or less preferably.  I have around 20,000 songs on the hard drives, stream with Tidal and have Roon membership (yearly).

The most important besides sound quality is ease of use so my wife feels comfortable operating it as well since  system will be the main family/living room and I prefer music to TV :).

Thanks for your help and suggestions
dukeassassin
Hello duke assassin!
If I was in your shoes I’d be looking at a Roon Nucleus to act as both your Roon Core and network player hooked up to your DAC of choice with a suitable USB Cable. My choice would be a Chord Qutest tethered to the Nucleus via Curious USB Cable. I would then install an SSD into the bay of the Nucleus. A 1 TB SSD should do it, but I’d put in a 2 TB SSD just to be safe and give you room for adding more albums. I can personally recommend the Nucleus, Qutest and Curious USB cable, as I have all 3 in my main rig today.
What’s nice about this is that both the Nucleus and Qutest are high quality small footprint items. For further upgrade you could consider linear power supplies for both the Nucleus and Qutest. You can check out my system in the Virtual Systems Section.   https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8156


Why spend $4k when you can get maybe a better solution for $400, a used Sonore microRendu. I use the microRendu for the last 4+ years. This device is a Ethernet-2-USB converter. So you hook up the device to your network by Ethernet and then the output of the device by USB to your DAC. You can use your computer in any room to control the device. I use ROON client to run my streaming since the microRendu is ROON READY. There are many other streaming client options with the Rendu lineup. You have many options to get wired Ehternet to the room where your audio system resides (if interested, PM me for ideas).

https://www.audiogon.com/listings?q=sonore
(nothing in the $400 range yet but they do show up).

Why is this so amazing? You can have even a low quality computer in another room and the noise on that machine will not get to your DAC. Well almost no noise. I have been told that there is some analog noise that travels in the RJ45 Ethernet wire and gets to the device which then gets into you DAC. However, as someone who uses the microRendu for years I would say that this noise is very low. If you system is not that resolving I wonder if it is even an issue.

There area few ways way to mitigate this noise on the RJ45 Ethernet wire so that it does not get to the DAC. Sonore has solutions for that which take the price up. I may upgrade to that newer solution using mostly (or all) network optical wire as opposed to RJ45 Ethernet (what you are likely using). Anyway, this is a more complicated solution and if you are interested PM me and I can send you some more info via links.

My decision to upgrade up the Sonore line will be determined by the streaming capabilities on the next DAC I get. Unless I get the Lumin X1 DAC I have a feeling the Sonore Rendu lineup would be the way to go when a computer is involved.

BTW - do not let anyone tell you a computer in the audio chain is old school and you need a dedicated audiophile server. You do not need a dedicated server to get amazing quality streaming.
Thanks jazzman7 and yyzsantabarbara for the advice as both are quite different solutions to my new situation.  I was looking at the lumin u1 mini.  A small footprint is important since space is limited in my audio cabinet.  I am concerned about getting wired ethernet to the room where the system will be located as the computer will most likely be in a back bedroom.  The house is not big around 1700 sft but bedroom is in opposite corner that is why I was thinking of music server.  I am pretty new to streaming in general so ease of use and not having to cut wholes in the wall are important considerations...
Dukeassassin,
here are some ways of providing an ethernet port without having to cut holes in the wall or fish cable:
- Establish a wifi mesh network.  And then use rj45 port on mesh network gear to establish ethernet connection  for your main system.  Could consider wifi mesh extender that could be used with existing router. 
(estimated cost for hardware $150-$300)
- Utilize pair of powerline ethernet adaptors.  This is a relatively inexpensive option.  (less than $100 for hardware).
I myself was faced with the same problem when I got seriously into streaming back in 2014.  My Gateway (combo modem and router) is on my lower level.  My main rig is on the main level.  I went the powerline ethernet route back in 2014 which I'm still using.  I have been considering upgrading to a mesh network solution using a wifi mesh extender.