Where are the cheap home streamers?


When CD players were first introduced, they were $1000 and more new.  And this was in early 80's dollars.  New ones would eventually drop to under $200, and new players that also play most all formats can still be had around at that price or less.  Sure, not the best quality, but they work well enough for most.  

The new frontier is of course, streaming.  Whether from a local host, online, and so on.  Many options in the high end, but what seems odd is the lack of budget options.  Probably the least expensive that's of decent quality is the Sonos Connect.  Oh sure, you can pair a computer or tablet with a cheap DAC, and get by.  Or roll your own with a Raspberry Pi solution.  And yes, most disc players are "smart" and can stream audio and video just fine.  Among other issues, is that the budget options are defaulting to HDMI out, and omitting Optical, Digital, and Analog out.  

There were some early efforts by Sony and Dlink a few years ago.  Both not only required a display, but were pretty terrible implementations overall.  We recently tried one of the Dayton WBA 31s.  For a mere $50, expectations were of course also modest.  As you might imagine, analog audio out is not great.  Below that of many phones we'd say.  It does however had an optical output.  A dealbreaker for most of our clients in terms of added complexity.  If produced in sufficient number, there is no good reason such a unit with a decent DAC couldn't be built and sold for $200 or so.  Or maybe someone is doing this, and it's just not well distributed?  



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Bits are bits, and the cheapest way I found to get them to my DAC is via USB from a RPI4 loaded with a Moode image. I use mconnect app on an iPad connected to Qobuz as my UI. I can stream 24 bit 192 kHz. The sound quality is as good as any streamer because bits are bits  The streamer is about the size of a deck of cards. It is very easy to setup if you are comfortable with computers. The total cost is $50. If you don’t like it or can’t put it together, you are only out $50. Good luck in your quest.
Why do I need a streamer again?  I have a Zen Blue Bluetooth receiver and an external Burr Brown DAC. I stream My service from my ipad, iPhone, and sometimes a MacBook. What does an entry-level to mid-priced streamer bring to the party?
I have been using a Nord Acoustics Easy Stream DAC Connect ES9038 streamer for months now. Pretty happy with it.
This streamer uses the 4Stream app from your phone for connectivity. More streaming services than I knew existed. Including Qobuz. 
I believe these do have BT but I connect via ethernet. No problems streaming 24/192. 
Being equipped to use either the internal ES9038  DAC with RCA out, ethernet or SPDIF out for external DAC it has options. I believe I paid $310 delivered. 
This is not a rhetorical question.. I really want to know.  If you think your streamer should sound better than a CD, where do you think the Streamer got its music.  Most of what we listen to is from old CD's and LP's, which are the source for the streaming companies.  Are we seriously supposed to believe that current recording techniques and equipment have some magical property that is recorded, mixed for CD, etc, and then digitally compressed and then transmitted via poine wires, optical, or through cell towers should sound better?
BTW, I am also looking for an relatively inexpensive streamer and hope to keep reading here until I get one.  I head one for $500 at AudiioAdvisors  in West Palm Beach, but did not buy it for two reasons: It was more than I wanted to spend for something that does not sound as good as my CD player, which admittedly did cost  a wee bit more.