Streaming 101

I have a couple thousand CDs. If you streaming correctly it will sound as good as red book CD and better with higher resolution music from Qobuz or other HQ streaming services. The age of ripping CDs is about over. I would not waste time and money on it. On the other hand lots of streamers come with storage... My streamers came with storage and I had ripped all my CDs over the last 20 years. I haven’t played them once.

Since your looking at fairly high quality equipment... I’ll mention Aurender again. I guess if I was looking in that price range I would recommend a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC and a Aurender N100 Streamer (no DAC in it). The Yggdrasil is very inexpensive at ~$2,500 with performance of twice that. This combo would put you in some solid performance for ~ $5K

You can see my systems by clicking on my ID... I started on my system in 1973... have been upgrading to where my systems are today.

There are so many solutions it is crazy. It will depend on the price range and your long term objectives. If you want ultimately to get to audiophile quality, most folks will get a streamer and a separate DAC. But you can get very high quality boxes that do both... look at Aurender. They have outstanding units at all price points.

If you are looking to keep improving your system, you could use your PC as. Streamer for a while... but be aware they are not good sources compared to high quality streamers. Bluesound makes a budget streamers, some with DACs. 
 

What are your long term plans and budget?