What direction should I go

Here are what you could consider in increasing price and performance but diminishing returns:

- ADi2-RME

- Bluesound vault 2i

- Schiit Gungnir

- Chord Qutest

- Schiit Yggdrasil

- DCS Bartok

Don’t forget to consider the software user interface side too.

I am doing what you are doing also...

I would look into a Lumin U1 mini with a Schitt Audio DAC.  Both the Lumin and Schitt can be audtioned at home to see if you like them.

I would select a streamer that is compatible with Roon - as the software interface of the streamer you select might not be very user friendly.  The Lumin app is pretty good but Roon is on a different level.

I've read great reviews of Innuos and Aurrender but I don't think they are Roon ready - see link here.

I own both the Innuos Zen3 Mini/LPS and a Zen3. Both are very good for the price.

That being said, I bought a Brinkman Nyquist. Yes, it is over 10K used, but I have to say my first thoughts were- 'Boy this reminds me of vinyl'.

I have also bought the Zen Reclocker. I put in the system with the Mini and definitely noticed an increase in definition.

Bob

The Innuos Zen 3 mentioned above at $2,500 is a remarkable  machine. Their app actually works. As Mr. Corus pointed out It streams/rips/stores all in one box. I Have an Innuos Zenith closing in at close to $5000 going to a $1600 Benchmark dac.. That's not a ton of money. Sending CD quality from the Innuos storage, through the Benchmark dac sounds remarkable. Detailed and nuteral. With your new dac, I can only imagine. 

Get this and be happy.....and save money...

It's impossible to make recommendations. Spend time auditioning at dealers. Make a shortlist, auction the components at home in your system. Be prepared for surprises. Listen passively, reading a magazine or something - if your system starts to attract your attention and your gaze lifts from your mag, then you are onto something and you can undertake critical listening sessions. You need several days with each component auditions. Make notes - probably devise a scoring system - you will not remember what you heard previously. The journey will be worth it. Good Luck!

PS. I am a devote single source advocate, red book CD still conveys the emotion better than high rez for my requirements. CDT5, Berkeley RS3, darTZeel, Silent Source, Magico Q5 & dedicated electrical spur with industrial cabling and industrial earthing mat / grouted rods directly outside the listening room (stone floor and 2' think stone walls, semi vaulted ceiling). Wide musical taste. Took me 40+ years to build my system to where I have stopped searching for more.

Aurender A20, DAC/Streamer 14K List, you should be able to get it for less.

Aurender A20

I just decided to add a dedicated DAC to my system.

I’m currently using my Naim XS2 and will keep it for network streamer (excellent user interface  I’ve had Lumin, no comparison)

Access is difficult difficult under current conditions, so relied on Volumes of reviews formal and published on YouTube. Berkeley, Cord, Mytek and others, I narrowed it down to Dynafrips Terminator II and Holo May level 3. After multiple correspondence with both very responsive companies, I went with Halo. 
Beware lead times are an issue with most manufacturers not having stock. Six weeks seems to be the median.

Waiting for @jasonbourne52 to appear and tell you all you need is a 100.00 DAC connected to a 50.00 DVD player....

To be fair, an iPad with a dongle into some RCAs, is what I often use to check the system.
If one doesn’t like that, then it is not certain that they would line other higher $ digital approaches over the VPI scout sound.

The rest of the gear is nice.

You will need:

fast Internet, a nice power supply for your router, a fancy ethernet cable from your router to your system, a fancy ethernet switch (English electric switch 8) , a fancy ethernet cable from the switch to your server (wolf audio systems luna r or better), a fancy usb cable from your server to your dac (t+a dac8dsd or better) , nice powercord for your dac, and xlr to your preamp. Also youll need a roon subscription and a Qobuz subscription.

At 44k, and 2 channels at 24 bits, it becomes around 2 Mbits. One does not need gigabit ethernet for the low bandwidth of audio.

For a time I thought about getting a new CD player that has digital inputs ( mine does not ) and add the streamer and hard drive to it. Based on reading I think perhaps that is not the best approach but I am not opposed to that either.

It may be a good approach.
One can run Roon on a NUC, or use some other embedded Roon player, etc…
But one can also run that type of setup into a DAC, and then into the preamp.

I would not push it out of the solution space just yet.

You will need:

fast Internet, a nice power supply for your router, a fancy ethernet cable from your router to your system, a fancy ethernet switch (English electric switch 8) , a fancy ethernet cable from the switch to your server (wolf audio systems luna r or better), a fancy usb cable from your server to your dac (t+a dac8dsd or better) , nice powercord for your dac, and xlr to your preamp. Also youll need a roon subscription and a Qobuz subscription.

thats how i do it.. plus i have everything connected to a ground block

I would consider going with the Lumin U1, not that much homework and a quantum leap from the Bluesound node. While blue sound is great for the dollar, it’s not hi-fi, and you may get disillusioned with streaming. Lumin s sell pretty quickly if you want to go up from there. 

Baetis mid level streamer with entry level TotalDac best 2 box purchase(streamer DAC) I ever made.

Use Roon/Tidal

 Away you go

"...betta git outta town 'fore sundown...."

...and other helpful comments...*S*

I'd poke about the used equipment if getting any possibilities for demos' dissipates.

There's a lot of 'forks' in the paths you've outlined, so 'one-hit wonders' could take a while to wade through...

If you're in no rush, have fun. ;)

Go West young man

Since I want neutral but would go to the cooler side of neutral I can actually go west a bit and be right next to the Pacific. That will be cooler than where I am .... except in the winter, then I will just go east a bit. But all of this moving around sucks.

I am also surpised that no one said to turn on the AC. Perhaps that would degrade the sound of the equipment 🤔

As prior mentioned, if you want sound more cold, you go North. Otherwise go South, but don't go too far, because life sucks when it goes down South.

Thank you for all the input. It appears as though with my budget and used gear I can get a decent setup. However, I would have to rely on reviews and in the event it doesn't work well in my system, resaleability. I assume I can look at what is for sale on A'gon and get a feel for what does and does not sell well.

If I audition pieces at some of the dealers around I will definitely buy from them. I do not feel right about checking out different gear then buying it used from somewhere else.

So the question of new vs used needs to be answered. Assuming the consensus on this forum would be to get used?

Do people on here have a sense of what has good and bad resale to where I can hit you up and say is this piece a good candidate without audition?

As one who just got into streaming about 9 months ago, my advice is to get a player/server which has the hard drives built in. IOW a straight path from music to player. This should remove one of the network handshakes which is the biggest problem I have had with an all in one player. It sounds good enough when I can get the issues with network handshakes taken care of.But they seem endless, which is why I agree with @ghdprentice on the aurender because it does have the drives built in and seems to have a reasonably sound controller software.

Waiting for @jasonbourne52 to appear and tell you all you need is a 100.00 DAC connected to a 50.00 DVD player....

I think your approach is good. Your current equipment choices look to be exactly in line with your desired sound output.

Given the high quality of your system you will want to add a streamer and DAC of appropriate quality. I would not recommend any budget gear… you will be disappointed with the results. If I hadn’t looked at your budget I would recommend a Aurender N10 and a Berkeley Alpha 3 DAC. Maybe think used. I still would.

Thinking ahead, I would look at this route as this… if you get streaming right, you will not use files stored locally or disks. So, if you do this correctly you can get access to a nearly infinite library of music at better sound quality than you have now.

Take your time, use your dealers as he has some good options. It is really good that you know what you want.

I'd start with the Innuos ZEN 3 at $2500. 

Why? It streams/rips/stores. One Box.

You seem to have a lot of boxes so

maybe that is your preference.

Buy an Ares 2 DAC $800.

Buy the Uptone Audio Etherregen $650

Hardwire router to Regen. 

Enjoy !!

All easily resold if you find a desire to trade up.

Meantime you are streaming.

Go north to Alaska.

A CDT and seperate DAC is the only rational detour.

You can buy a better network player cold but it is not recommended unless you like homework. Start with a Bluesound or prepare to ease into streaming.

In any event you will want the Fing app for any networking.