Why do you need a streamer like Aurlaic or a Lumin? Any 1 of these streamers mentioned above are just computers with some proprietary software. A few years back, I used the typical setup, a dedicated Auralic Aries hooked up to my external dac using USB and a few of the typical tweaks to usb. At the time, Aurlaic sounded better than the Lumin or Aurender streamers and had the best software on the iPad to control the Aries.
I got rid of all that USB crap, the auralic Aries, and the external dac and went with a network attached dac, Roon running on a dedicated Mac mini, and the SQ is much better and the whole setup is much simpler.
My takeaways were: never use a computer/streamer in the audio room, never use USB if you want good sq, and get the best dac you can afford that uses ethernet or I2S interfaces.
I got rid of all that USB crap, the auralic Aries, and the external dac and went with a network attached dac, Roon running on a dedicated Mac mini, and the SQ is much better and the whole setup is much simpler.
My takeaways were: never use a computer/streamer in the audio room, never use USB if you want good sq, and get the best dac you can afford that uses ethernet or I2S interfaces.