latik, thanks. That was my suspicion, but thought I should seek out community experience before dropping a pile of $$$ on Aurender or such.
Wired vs. Wireless
Let's say you have a streamer/DAC device which can run on Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Considering sound quality alone, is there a difference between controlling the streamer from a phone/tablet vs. using an outboard music player via USB, AES, or coax? In either setup you are using the same DAC and its output, so the question is to what extent, if any, does the front end matter.