Hardware Streamers

I am loving the feeling of the hi-res world at your fingertips with Tidal. Well, not really the world.  I'm currently using my laptop to deliver Tidal MQA streams and I would like to free up the laptop.  I've read some discussions here on the Bluesound Node 2 (now 2i) versus other devices.  My Hegel amp has a very nice DAC with a USB input, so I would use the digital out from whatever device I choose.  Some of you have indicated that you don't like the sound of the Node, but if I use the Hegel DAC, how much difference might I notice between it and something like the Aurender N100H.  The sound from my laptop is pretty good, but the laptop cost 1/3 of the Aurender.  Could I expect the Node to sound better/worse than the laptop?  What about the Aurender?

 Would love to hear from any of you who have used the Bluesound products and anything else in a reasonable price range (that is, if the N100h at $2700 is my upper end).