Thanks all for the further feedback!
yoyoyaya, I will check out the NAD M50.2; phishhhh4, good to hear about the simpatico nature of your Tambaqui and (Innuos) Pulsar; zlone, thanks for your discussion of clocking. Given the overall excellence of the Tambaqui, I’d expect that it would robustly handle all major functional demands placed upon it, but I should try to verify that a bit.
I’m also realizing that I really need to get a better overview of the rudiments of this domain, and so have begun reading the lengthy digital audio chapter of Harley’s latest edition of his "Complete Guide." While I personally regard him as highly suspect as a reviewer of particular gear (all the new flagship stuff he reviews seems to be continually amazing and "revolutionary" in his writeups and he seems to live in a world that generally doesn’t acknowledge typically diminishing returns and "small differences" at the high end; plus there’s his gushing "MQA of it all"), still my sense is that he’ll provide a generally accurate review of the basics, just so I basically understand the newer ’digital audio landscape.’
I think I’m also realizing that perhaps I should consider the alternative of buying all of these gear functions separately. In that case I could direct a relatively greater share of my expenditures to a 'top-notch'-sounding standalone server with internal flash storage (my ultimate priority here), preferably one with excellent proprietary music library software- i.e, devoting as least half of my overall budget for my upstream-of-DAC budget to it; with the other half going to various other functions, which are secondary, those being a cd transport (yup, I still want to spin some discs), a convenient cd ripper; and least important for my listening patterns, an adequate streamer for periodically listen to Qobuz or other internet-streamed content- mostly just to find what I'd want to purchase for download
Given that, in addition to the all-in one Innuos options, I’ve also begun looking at middle-of-range Melco Music Library units (but welcome other equivalent options); transports like the Jay’s Audio CD2-MK3 or the one by Melco; the Melco cd-ripper unit, and after all that is determined, a relatively modest streamer function (at least for my foreseeable listening future).
If anyone has experience with the Melco servers vs that function in the Innuos Gear, or vs other likely contenders in this category, please feel free to chime in, thanks! Also, for the other semi-luddites among us, any experiences/perspective on transports, particularly those I mentioned or those in that price range?