streamer for PWD DAC mkII - tired of a computer and complicated connectivity!

Jon2020, I'm sorry, I think I missed something - what is your suggestion?
thanks!

Ah yes, this is a beautiful piece, the Cary. Just out of my limited budget.  If I keep the PS Audio piece, my budget is minuscule. Maybe $300-$400. If I sell the PS Audio piece, my budget grows to about $2k, give or take. Anyone have any advice on a bluesound node as a streamer for my PWD?

Such a bargain!

This sector of the industry is a quagmire.  I hope it improves in 2016!  Basically I want a hifi version of Sonos that I can plug into my DAC for a good price.  That or a single unit that combines a good DAC and a very convenient player.  For the moment, I am going to reconfigure things a little with my computer and see if I can get it to run more conveniently.

Is the node the same as the vault just without the CD  Drive  and internal storage?

Fmer, I know it is possible, I just find it clunky.  I detest JRiver.  I think it is really poorly designed software.  In my time with the PWD, Bridge, and JRiver, I have never been happy.

Moryoga,  that was probably a good move! I prefer listening to vinyl on my system though my whole quest for a digital plan here is to at least to be able to enjoy my digital somewhat!

for the time being I decided to reconfigure my Mac Mini and my set up somewhat and hold off on any additional purchases. I had an old SSD laying around so I installed that in the Mac Mini to make it a little zippier,  I connected the hard drive directly to the Mac Mini to  eliminate network funniness,  i've converted all my files to AIFF, and playing them using iTunes and bit perfect.   I've set the computer to never sleep, there's no display attached to it so it looks fine on the audio rack,  and since the computers use for absolutely nothing else, it seems to be always ready for the iPhone remote app. 

So that's the plan, I haven't tested it fully yet,  but I'll keep you posted on the thread! Thanks for your help so far. I hope in a year's time  there will be an interesting solution for me at a good price.

Yes, you can rip with the mini. Some models have a built in optical drive, some require an external drive to rip.  I like the idea of a bluesound vault 2 over the node. It is basically a node  with an optical drive for ripping and a hard drive for storage.  I have yet to use one, but they look interesting.  The app and usability will be important in making a decision on that brand.

Arafiq, I am in total agreement about the lack of info. I have been scouring the manufacturer's websites to find streaming products and I am finding very few that look like attractive options at any price. It seems this section of the industry is still quite undeveloped. 

My my options seem to be to buy a $500 streaming device (bluesound node or auralic mini) to replace my mac mini and connect to the PS Audio PWD via USB, but this makes me rely on the USB which reduces the quality of playback of the PWD by not using its onboard player in the bridge, and it also means I am investing in an underdeveloped user interface in either of those streaming products. Basically, I am not super excited about either.

My other option is to sell the mac mini and the PWD and purchase one of three stand alone DAC streamers: the Sony hap-z1es, the Cambridge 851N, or the Marantz na11s1 (the Marantz being a bit north of my budget).  The issues here are, I may be taking a step back in sound quality from the PWD, and the question of user interface is still there - how mature are these other options?

i think I am going to give the old college try on the PWD bridge, and see if I can get a different software other than JRiver to work. If I still find it too cumbersome, perhaps I'll audition the Cambridge unit, as it looks very flexible. Has anyone compared to Cambridge 851N to a higher end ($2500 a $5000 price range) stand alone DAC?

Hello All, so I decided to keep the PWDII and I actually just replaced the bridge with the Bridge 2.  I figured that had to be done.  I also recently discovered Roon & Tidal, which I adore.  So now I am playing the music via Roon and hard drive, connected via USB.  As soon as Roon & PS Audio combine forces, which I expect to happen this year (hopefully sooner than later!) I will be able to move my mac mini and hard drive off the audio shelf, back into a closet, and connect via ethernet.  At that point I will give the Bridge 2 its proper listen.  For now, I cannot imagine using JRiver again.  Utterly crap user interface and functionality compared to Roon.  I'll be in touch...