I feel what's being overlooked is the resolving power of your speakers.
An advanced DAC would cost a lot but you might not be able to discern
everything it's doing without very accurate transducers. I don't know enough about streaming, but with the pace of improvements in technology, I would welcome modularity when it comes to digital playback so that upgrading could be done in the field. Also, I am one of these "oddballs" who goes to a demo and can't hear a significant difference between item-A and item-B (which costs twice as much).
Item-B may look a little "newer" and have a few extra inputs (I won't need) and a nicer display, but it's not so much the cost but the degree of real improvement, which is small.
An advanced DAC would cost a lot but you might not be able to discern
everything it's doing without very accurate transducers. I don't know enough about streaming, but with the pace of improvements in technology, I would welcome modularity when it comes to digital playback so that upgrading could be done in the field. Also, I am one of these "oddballs" who goes to a demo and can't hear a significant difference between item-A and item-B (which costs twice as much).
Item-B may look a little "newer" and have a few extra inputs (I won't need) and a nicer display, but it's not so much the cost but the degree of real improvement, which is small.