I was streaming through my computer into a Chord Qutest which I thought sounded good for about $2K. I tried it out against several Chinese DACs a little lower in price, and I thought the Chinese DACs sounded... too digital. Crispy critters.
I upgraded to a Moon 280D which is a lot better than the computer and Qutest. Much more lively fast sound. I think there is the issue of jitter to be considered. There should be less jitter in a single unit than two boxes connected by whatever.
The Moon was about $4k. But it's from Canada, so who knows? I compared the Moon to more expensive streamers and I really couldn't hear the difference. Or at least I didn't want to sit around waiting to hear the difference. If it didn't smack me in the face, then I wasn't going to spend an extra $5K. I have read audio forums in which audiophiles have said it is difficult in streamers to hear the difference between a relatively inexpensive one like mine and the higher-priced spreads.