Digital Advice

@mybuddy

How have you ripped CDs to the Mac? If you use an Apple Optical device as the ripper, it can also be used to play CDs if it’s attached to the Mac. If you then add a Wiim streamer or Bluesound Node you are under budget.

Personally I would check out a CD player from NAD or a CD transport from the likes of Cambridge Audio . I would continue to use the computer attached to a DAC as your streamer. Dedicated streamers are just networking computers that are made to look and operate like audio components. They usually have better DACs than PCs have but you said you already own a DAC.  If you add a program such as Audirvana to the Mac then it works more like a streamer and less like a PC playing music and may potentially increase the audio quality

Our posts must have crossed.

There are posters here that will routinely dismiss CDs and tell any one inquiring about a new CDP to just stream.  They aren’t right or wrong, it’s just a preference.

New Vaults are over his budget. Personally I would stay away from a used Vaults. I don’t know what refurbished means, except they scrubbed the hard drive. My Vault started failing after about 3 years, right when the warranty was up. I think he is safer going with a Wiim and a transport, but adding a program like Audirvana greatly improves using a PC as a streamer, because it turns off some other parts of the PC that contribute to the noise. It probably costs the same as a Wiim