Solo streamer

@lanx0003  You seem to be missing the point.  The OP likes his Dac3, and I agree with him.  His question is about a STREAMER.  You seem to have cherry picked one negative review regarding the Benchmark, despite the many positive ones.  You may not know it, but not everyone thinks that newer is better.  Some are in love with the dac in their older cd players.

Did you know that the OP is a classical music aficionado and believes that his dac renders the music correctly?  Many agree with him.  For example:

"I concluded my May 2004 review of Benchmark's DAC1 by calling it an "audiophile bargain." The same applies to the DAC3 B. Highly recommended for Class A+ in Stereophile's Recommended Components, along with the DAC3 HGC, which Benchmark says sounds identical.—John Atkinson"

FWI this is from March 2023 https://www.stereophile.com/content/benchmark-dac3-hgc-da-preamplifier-headphone-amplifier-benchmark-dac3-b 

@mdalton I defended the Benchmark in an earlier post against those who had belittled it, but got no response.  I agree with what you are saying.

@mdalton  You absolutely can't have any audiophile street cred if you don't buy in to the "everything new and more expensive is better"  shtick.  Luckily not all of us accept this spew.  Of course there has to be a base line, entry level.  How far above that one must go is an individual decision.  I think the Bluesound node is an excellent streamer.  I don't feel the need to wear a price tag as a badge of honor.

For the record, my digital setup is :  Bluestream node n130 into Benchmark dac3 hgc, directly into Bryston 4bsst2, and then Magnepan 1.7.  Sometimes I alternate the Herron preamp and the Kef meta ls50 into the mix.  The sound with these variations is outstanding to my ear, but what do I know?  I have recently found a nice pair of used Sennheiser 800, and with the Benchmark dac the sound is remarkable.  I do think the headphone amp in the Benchmark is somewhat lacking and am looking for an upgrade to the Quicksilver tube amp.  I don't feel the need for any further upgrades.  But again what do I know?  

Reminds me of my favorite all time bumper sticker. "You just think you're happy" ( Bloomington, In. 1970).  In this case I just think I'm happy with my sound. 

I love the smell of digits in the morning!