Streamer only

To the OP, you have a very good system. But it sounds like streaming is a "new fangled" idea to you. Perhaps you have a nice vinyl set up or play a lot of CDs. 

Given that streaming will likely "take hold" and you will love it and its convenience, I'd suggest getting at least a Bluesound Node (the ones with USB out if you need that).  Nothing wrong with the WiiM products for their prices - I have a couple of them in various rooms and one in my garage. They work excellently and their software puts that provided with some $4000 streamers to shame. 

The Node can always be sold or repurposed or given to an interested relative later on when you decide to get "something" better. Or you might be perfectly happy with the Node feeding your integrated and call it a day. 

You didn't mention if you have ethernet near your stereo or will have to use Wi-Fi. If Wi-Fi, beware the iFi Zen. Unless iFi has done anything to fix it in the last year or so, it has a lot of bad online reviews for its frustrating connectivity that drops often.

Ironically the extremely cheap ($99) WiiM Mini in my garage NEVER drops its signal.  

Have fun! You'll be discovering a lot of new music to enjoy. 

One thing people seem to ignore (correct me please if I am wrong) is that to use the "better" clock in your external DAC over the one in a "cheap" streamer, you must use asynchronous USB or I2S, otherwise the clock in the streamer is doing the "driving". The use of Toslink optical or coax outputs from a streamer limits you to however good the clock in the streamer is. At least this is what Hans Beekhuyzen implied in a recent YouTube video of his.

The thing is, there aren’t many "cheap" streamers that have USB out other than those particular models of the Node that I’m aware of. (Not counting any home brewed, noisy, Raspberry Pi streamers). Figure that the clock in the Node X or his integrated is better than one in any of the WiiMs.

@northbeach does the Innuos Pulse Mini support Tidal Connect? I've been trying to find a good streamer (less than $2K) that has USB outputs so the better clock in an external DAC can take over to reduce jitter.  Someone mentioned the Bluesound Node X has USB output, but I'm not 100% sure connecting it to an external DAC truly bypasses the clock in the Node.  Thanks. 

@soix sorry, I’ve not yet gone down the rabbit hole of using a DDC but might do that sometime, so I don’t have any first hand experience with using one. I’ve only watched the videos on Vinshine’s website and YouTube channel about the Iris.

My limited understanding is that the DDC "somehow" takes over the clock duties from both the streamer and the DAC, and the DDC’s better clock circuit does its magic to reduce jitter even further. This would happen over I2S and USB but not (if I understand correctly) Toslink Coax or SP/DIF Optical. Perhaps someone else on here can illuminate how this works and if it is in a setting or if it is automatic. Weekend is here. Enjoy the music.

Oh, here is one of the videos I watched regarding using the Iris with a Pontus II:

Best Seller • Iris DDC + Pontus II DAC (vinshine.audio)

Don't want to hijack this thread. I too love my WiiM devices for what they are. But I don't see too many on here suggesting Cambridge Audio's $500 MXN10 or AXN10 as low-cost streamer options.  Stereophile has a review in the current issue and the guy liked the MXN10 very much, even used it with an inappropriate dCS DAC just for the heck of it to see how it would do. Given the retail price is roughly double that of the WiiM Pro Plus, can we surmise that the clock circuit in the Cambridge should be "better"? Anyone here have one to offer feedback?  Thanks. Oh, note that you can find "open box" MXN10s on Cambridge's eBay store for $399. 

@mclinnguy Interesting from the Antipodes article. According to that, even S/PDIF can (but maybe not always depending on the DAC) be reclocked by a downstream DAC. 

All I know is that both USB and I2S are asynchronous in nature, and I2S keeps the clock stream and data stream separate, instead of multiplexing them together like USB, so, in theory, I2S should offer a "cleaner" signal to the DAC or at least less overhead in processing, for less jitter.  Could I hear a difference? I'm not sure. 

But I'd be happy if more streamers in the $400 to $1100 range would offer USB or I2S outputs to feed an external DAC so we could be "done with" this issue and know for certain that the "better" clock we have paid for is doing its thing, along with having the bandwidth to do higher resolution files if we want. Thanks.