I thought I would weigh in on your question as I have embarked on the streamer journey since our house burned down last year in a forest fire. I replaced all my old equipment with similar gear mostly from Audiogon. I love analog, and I found an old VPI TNT VI with a VdH Crimson cartridge to replace my lost analog rig. After looking around for a streamer/DAC, I settled on a Cary Audio DMS 700 (new) and it was amazing to stream music from Qobuz that made the previously wonderfully sounding old Wadia 860 sound restrained. I now run a digital coax from the Wadia and use it as a transport for the few CD's that were donated to me. The Cary approached, and in some cases almost equaled my analog rig. I then needed another streamer in a different part of the house so I tried the DMS 650 ($4796 at the Cary Direct Store), which was almost the equal of the 700, as it is a new product for Cary. At the same time, I trialed the DMS 800 (a new product for them) which knocked my socks off for detail, holographic imaging and not a hint of digital harshness. Though the DMS 650 is above your stated budget, consider that it has state of the art AKM DAC's that will resolve all the high resolution formats you utilize. It also has balanced outputs, with multiple digital input options, and I suspect you would notice that it will make the streaming of digital music close enough to your analog rig that you will use it more often as you explore more and more music from cyberspace. Cary Audio will let you trial it for 30 days to see if you like it. Alternatively, you could try to find a used DMS 600 for close to your budget, which I have not heard, but others have reported on favorably. Good Luck.
Wanting to upgrade my streaming sound quality.
I would really like to get my streaming sq up to my analog sq. My equipment is a McIntosh MC 452, C47, TD 124 with an AT 150 SA on a SME M2-9 tone arm, a Rega P8 with an Alpheta 3, a restored MR 74 tuner, driving Aerial 7t speakers. My streaming now is an iPad with a usb cable into my preamp with Tidal. I would be willing to spend around $2500 . A one box solution would be preferable for a steamer/dac combo although two boxes could also work. I’m not interested in multiple clocks and separate power supplies etc. Also I don’t use CD’s for a source. I do have AT&T fiber internet with up to 1000 mb speed and my modem is only around 5 feet from my audio rack. Balanced inputs is preferable but not a deal breaker. I’ve looked at the HiFi Rose 250 and the 150 although the latter is more money than I want to spend. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m an Analog guy in a digital world.
Greg