[help] I'm too Boomer to stream. :-(

Labguy I felt your pain , myself recently transitioning away from using a transport I easily got confused over all the options and opinions what next step I should move to ripping music and or streaming .
Thinking about it with “user conveniences set aside whatever direction I went it had to be an overall sound quality upgrade.

Initially my budget was six grand however with some in store and home trials including help from some local audio friends I ended up purchasing a Black Friday special in store demo Cocktail Audio x50 server with SSD drives to start with .
It will due for now , I view these things as computer parts in a nice looking box though some have proprietary designs here and there in them I question how much are you willing to spend on it .
As for streaming the industry would love to get everyone signed up to a monthly subscription .

I enjoy playback of ripped CDs as much and more then listening to them using a transport and the convenience of use managing my music with an iPad ,. Forget about it,.

And best of all you don’t need to rely on a “IT” guy for help though pretty much any 14 year old would qualify I’m satisfied for now .

Electroslacker you make some great points about streaming currently I’m using a digital stack with a yet to be released streamer and I’ve already had second thoughts of purchasing this matching box though you have given me more food for thought .
Sure streaming is a whole new world of ultra convenience however it’s a new type of business selling monthly subscription’s brought to you mostly by a gang of smart marketeer’s that promote all sorts of nonsense and it’s working .

Besides I have my own CD collection including access to a huge library of CDs that I can borrow to rip . 
Goose I had all that I ripped so far on my server to another drive memory thing .