Suggestion for $10K soup to nuts digital?

@david_ten

Great advise! I intentionally held back any advice on network optimization in my original post. For all we know, the OP may ends up with Node 2 or equivalent which seems to be gold standard for many newbie’s and Vinyl fanatics…LOL!

We both know from our experience, everything matters!

Streamer / Dac I will never ever buy Lumin  Aurender, and Auralic

they’re too overhyped and plainly ugly lol 😂 

|  I am new to digital, but the last millennium CD player always worked fine.

Oh - so you want to also be able to play your physical CDs, rather than rip them to the computer? You have a nice network setup already with a Mac in one room and the stereo in the other. I have the same. I use an optical Rendu as an endpoint to erase any OCD feelings about noise entering the system - deep breathing or therapy likely work for this as well. You can run all the software on your Mac from anywhere. As to the last millennium approach of browsing through your CDs or records, pulling one out, and popping it in the player, no modern software or streamer captures that experience (in my opinion). If you want to stream, then you no choice other than to submit a different intuitive interface with music.

@m-db, you’ve got a nice problem to have. My first suggestion would be to get the best DAC that you can afford. The best DAC that I could afford in my digital music streaming system is a Chord Hugo TT2. It’s a world-class DAC that you can plug two pairs of headphones into simultaneously, and connect to some active bookshelf speakers that would be office appropriate without taking up tons of shelf space. 

For a music server I’d simply get a Roon Nucleus because it has the best user interface on the market right now. Plug an Ethernet cable into it, then run a USB from it to the TT2 and you’re in business. With Apple both units are plug and play. You can pick out almost anything you want to hear using an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac. 

I've only the Weiss 501 DAC to throw into the fray.  This is a transformative piece in all ways.  Hope that is targeted toward your question and goals.