Updating my streamer

@tkrtrb125 That would explain things. Thank you.

@bigfatpaulie 

Aurender is now roon ready.

@skids I stand corrected!  That's a new (to me) feature and something VERY welcome (IMHO)!

I’ll bet if the dealer carried Aurender he would change his view on what sounded best. It’s always amazing what they recommend is always the best.

I have also thought most other high end streamers sounded better than aurenders. I bought the Auralic Aries over the then top of the line Aurender. The Lumin and Lightning DS software was much better than Aurender software.

If you don’t use usb (which I haven’t since owning the Auralic), and you use Ethernet to the dac, you don’t need any special server to run Roon or Audirvana. 
Since no server is better than any other server/streamer at reading bytes off a disk, the only thing you are buying a server when using usb to the dac is if the server has enhanced the usb connection. 

Since I switched to i2s to the dac and my server is in a different room running Roon, I bought a streamer that gets my server data from wired Ethernet and outputs to i2s, no disks are attached. This streamer is an end point in Roon.

All these streamer/DACs recommended by folks are a "big step up" from the Node. However, I just recently saw that Bluesound is upping their game with a new streamer/DAC having a 5" screen, a better DAC implementation, and low noise power supply. Called the NODE Icon, it puts a pair of ESS ES9039Q2M into a dual mono D/A conversion circuit and powers it internally with an ultra-low-noise power supply. ~$1000 USD. Maybe worth considering.

It also will support Dirac room correction software but you'll have to have you own Dirac license and calibrated microphone to set that up if it interests you.