Thoughts and suggestions please

@ronboco there’s software on the market that transfers playlists.

One such example is Soundiiz in a very unlikely event you would need to use it. I would not purchase the tracks though at least until there are some indication that the service is going out of business  

As to streamers….I’ll tackle this knowing the possibilities with your 866 inbuilt DAC. 
The Boulder amp does not accept USB audio so you have to work with a streamer that features AES/EBU and or toslink. The latter is typically an inferior interface while the former requires a streamer with very good internal clock. Your other option is Ethernet input that allows the 866 to be used as a Roon endpoint. 
Given the Boulder internal DAC is an option that adds $1500 (may be more now not sure), getting a streamer for $5,000 throws your system out of balance. 
 

I think I suggested this to you in the past…try Roon free for couple of weeks. It requires a roon core that you would install on any computer that’s sitting on the same network as your 866 and you can control your music with iPad or android tablet. If you like the sound, you can keep Roon, pick up Roon Nucleus One (that’s their dedicated core) and mount a 2.5” SATA drive inside the Nucleus. You can purchase your playlist if you want or you can save your Qobuz playlist as your Roon playlist which saves the track metadata meaning you can just restore these tracks from Tidal for example. Some food for thought. 

If you insist on getting a new streamer you can look into Lumin, Auralic and Innuous. These offer usb in for external storage.
Aurender in a $5000 price range has nothing with AES out. There are other options as well on new and used markets. 
 

@ronboco i should have clarified….

so for example I have a Roon playlist with Qobuz tracks. For some reason, and by the way it actually happens, an album featuring these tracks is no longer available on Qobuz. These tracks would still be in the Roon playlist but would show as “unavailable”. I would then find this album on Tidal and add those tracks to my Roon playlist. I had to do this few times in the last 2-3 years as albums disappear occasionally. It’s rare though. I use both Qobuz and Tidal and it gives me flexibility plus there are albums on Tidal that aren’t available on Qobuz. Some examples - several Anne Bisson albums. Or Allan Taylor. 
 

One other item I missed…you asked about streamers that feature apps that are comparable to BluOS. I have tried several streamers (Lumin, Auralic, Aurender, WiiM) and streaming options (Mconnect, Audirvana, Tidal connect, Qobuz connect, Roon). Best UI - Roon. Second best Aurender Conductor and Auralic Lightning DS. Conductor loads tracks into a queue. It’s superb from sound quality perspective but to me it is annoying as the queue maintenance becomes a PIA. Lumin has hideous UI. I used it. You can get used to it but man it’s no fun. Tidal and Qobuz connect are very straight forward you basically just use the apps. 
Mconnect is basic and I can’t recommend it. Audirvana is ok. WiiM is probably closest to what you have with BluOS but they’re not on the level of your system. And nothing beats Roon user interface. It consolidates all your streaming services and local files. The albums are displayed as a holistic view with options to choose the version you want to play when you click on the album. 
I haven’t tried InnuOS. Not sure how Sense app is. Heard it is decent. 

They can be transferred over as an entire playlist using Sondiiz. 

Physical media is a very niche market at this point targeting old school audiophiles. It’s the reality. If you use streaming for discovery only and you’re buying and listening to CDs and or vinyl it means your streaming is not on the level and or you choose to buy physical media and it’s purely your choice. Vinyl album costs are in double and triple digits. If you are a serious collector and add up your yearly spend it will begin to look like one hell of a streaming front end if you spent this money on components. That’s just the reality. Landscape for recording industry has changed tremendously. They need to adopt. And with AI becoming part of everyday everything, who knows…we might witness a new Elvis Presley or The Beatles albums released soon. Keep this in mind. May be time to up your streaming game. 

Not telling anyone what to do here @cleeds 

and not advocating for any type of source  

If you want yo stream and buy CDs and vinyl please go ahead. I no longer buy vinyl but I still buy a CD once in a while. 

Nice system @redlenses03

former pass labs preamp/amp owner myself. Used to have XP-22 into X260.8 monos driving my Wilson Sabrina. Simplified my system and no longer have the Pass stuff but have fond memories of it all. 

I know a lot of members here hate MQA but I’ve found that Tidal MQA albums sound amazing with my Meitner MA3i DAC. The Meitner MA3i upsamples everything to DSD1024 and it seems to minimize the difference between Qobuz and Tidal. I listen to both and pick a better sounding version to listen to.  

My local record store charges $5 per CD and provides me with $2 credit when I bring it back, so the CD cost is $3. Many times only one song off a CD makes it to my playlist, so if you are paying $3 per song for a high resolution file, then that is a fair price, at this time.
 

you’re not supporting artists or the industry by purchasing used CDs and used vinyl records. I’m unable to find stats indicating gen Z and millennials are buying new CDs and records. That’s a key data point. Buying vinyl on garage sale and reporting on a survey that you’re listening to physical media is just a fun fact.

Cool @cleeds

I take all the points that I said and you highlighted as incorrect back. Yes the gen z and millennials are the biggest buyers when it comes to CDs and vinyl. And yes the buy up all the new music on physical media. I was wrong. You can rest easy now. 

@goodlistening64 that’s cool man. Enjoy the music!