What about Roon’s Titan NUC?
Considerably less expensive than your minimum threshold (chosen why?), and designed by Roon, specifically for being a Roon endpoint streamer.
Roon Endpoint Streamers - Direct Comparisons between Current Offerings?
Have any of you directly compared sound quality between any of the current offerings of streamers when used solely as a Roon endpoint/streamer? This assumes Roon core and any local music file storage is being operated on a separate device (i.e., a separate server).
I have listed several of the current options below and while a few of those offer additional features, such as server capabilities, hosting of local file storage, or operating players unique to their manufacturers (i.e., other than Roon), I am interested in their performance solely as a Roon endpoint/streamer. Other suggestions not listed below are welcome, but please consider a $5K -$10K price range.
Streamers
- Sonore Signature Rendu SE optical v3.0 - $5,350
- Auralic Aries G2.2 - $6,099
- Innuos Pulsar - $7,999
Server/Streamers
- Aurender N200 - $6,300
- Antipodes K22 - $9,000