Streamer's without built in DAC options?

McIntosh MB 50. Lots of streaming sourceboptions. I run it through my C 48 preamp. Balanced, unbalanced and digital connection options. Under the radar in my opinion. 

One recommendation, whatever you end up with will benefit further by removing the RFI mixed in with the Ethernet signal going into it. Network Acoustics ENO filter works wonders.

I have used a pro-ject stream box s2 ultra for a few years, and it works very well, and sounds a bit nicer than feeding my DAC direct from a Roon NUC.

I suppose one scenario in which you might want to add a streamer without a DAC is if you want your Nucleus to be in a separate room, and you want to use the Tambaqui as a USB DAC (instead of connecting it by ethernet). In that case, you might consider one of the Sonore Rendu products (such as the ultraRendu).  That's assuming you don't need the device to support, separately from Roon, a streaming service such as  Tidal.

This seems like an inversion of the “budget is the limiting factor” issue so many of us run into. Here, the issue is the budget is higher than it needs to be and the options are limited. 

I asked a question about DACless streamers last week and got some good advice

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/looking-for-a-basic-streamer-without-a-dac-preamp-storage-and-all-tha?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid&utm_medium=email

One of the suggestions I got was this device which is slightly more than I want to spend but it was recommended with the advice that more than $1k doesn’t get you better sound quality. 

https://magnahifi.com/nl/mano-ultra-music-streamer-high-res/

This lack of better sound quality at higher prices was supported by a few hours of reading about fancy streamers by PS Audio and Aurelic. Tons more money for the privilege of ownership but not for sound quality. Lots of mythology by the companies but not a lot of demonstrable “betterness”. 

So it’d seem there’s no need to spend $5k-$6k on a solution to the “problem”, especially with a Nucleus in the chain already.

OP could spend $500-$1000 on a device that would sound great (though admittedly wouldn’t have the glow of “I spent 10x more than that so it simply must be better”) and use the $5000-$5500 he’d save on some serious and impactful charitable giving this year. Think of all the WiFi hotspots that could be donated to kids in need, all the PPE that could buy a hospital, or how well that could stock a food bank at this time of year!!!