If you are a music lover you should investigate Roon. A Nuclueus can plug directly into a USB DAC and that's all you need for hardware. Mytek Brooklyn+ is a good one and it decodes MQA from Tidal Masters, which while not a panacea, are worth having available as an option. That setup will run you 40% of your budget max plus cables, and will give you an excellent listening quality. Given your resources, you can go large on cables...something like a Nordost Tyr USB 2.0 and ICs to match. You do need a hardwire link to your router for the Nucleus, BTW.
