Commercial streamers like SONOS and Bluesound simply combine some of these functions in the head-end and others int he remotes. SONOS, by the way, sounds awful in the context of true high-end. I was also shocked when i first heard that in a very good system. Switching ti CD was a relief.
I need to look up audioengr’s roll-you-r-own components to see what its about. I don’t think i’d give up ROON though.
Sonos can sound world-class if you reclock it with a Synchro-Mesh and use a good BNC terminated S/PDIF cable of the optimum length.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio