If you had to start all over again in this day and age

“I'm a chicken to move toward streaming. It took me years to get a cd player. To me an audio system is still about a tt, a player and a good ole single ended.“

I was there not long ago. During this pandemic I wanted a project so I ordered a hifiberry dac plus DSP $70 and a Raspberry Pi 4 $60. Another $10 for a heat sink case, a few bucks to download Volumio, and you are in business. Initially I attempted to build a Squeezebox type of thing with a screen, but realized this was overkill. I took an old iPhone and use it with Volumio app as my front end.  So far, the ease of selecting a wide variety of music and HD downloads points towards success. I had some help from kind folks on here to get through the software portion, but if I had just read thoroughly that could have been minimized. It doesn’t have a $400 glitzy case or front panel with pretty lights, but you won’t regret the $140 cash outlay, and the whole unit can hide in a small part of your rack. Don’t over complicate this as I did. Simple is good. If you need help, let me know. 

By the way, I am not overly savvy with technology, but I am fearless in tackling the unknown 😉

Arro,

order a Raspberry Pi4, either 2gb or 4gb, from any number of resellers. This is a small computer board that is amazingly versatile. $35-$55. Order a dac hat for the raspberry- I bought hifiberry dac plus DSP- approx $65 from Hifiberry. You could also consider one from Allo. Either will plug into the top of the Raspberry board. Get an 8gb micro sd card and burn the Volumio software (download from Volumio) or buy an sd card with Volumio already on it. You can use a power supply from your phone or iPad for the raspberry pi board. Hook the rca output of the Dac board to input of preamp or receiver. Download the volumio app on your pad or cell, stick the volumio loaded card in the pi, power it up, and select the volumio hotspot on your cell ( when you first turn on the raspberry it will be broadcasting a WiFi hotspot). Follow the directions in the app and pick the dac hat you chose- either the hifiberry or Allo- whichever one you end up purchasing. Click on sources and choose Tidal, pandora, Spotify or whatever music source you have and you are enjoying music. $100-$150 depending on dac you choose and any case and you have a first rate streamer. I added a screen and it looks like a squeezebox that was once available. If you want to tackle it let me know and I can assist. Took me a bit to figure out the software part but in retrospect it was my ignorance that was causing the problem. Great having thousands of songs in HD at my fingertips. Best of luck. 

Thanks pin. I wrestled with buying or building; I can afford the former but enjoy the latter and wasn’t sure streaming was for me. I have well over a 1000 CDs and a top shelf transport and Dac- albeit a dac made for cd output. The RPI opened my eyes to many possibilities and a NAS I just ordered may allow the CDs to be boxed up and stored. I need brain candy and the Raspberry may be just the ticket. BTW.....I haven’t heard batshit since my father passed. Thank you for jogging some memories. 
ARRO, we are akin in our cautious approach to new tech, but Streaming isn’t going away IMHO. Too many youngsters only know this format and they will be the decision makers of the future.