750$ Intel NUC vs $6000 Aurender N200: I don't hear the difference

Most streamers, not all, don't have the necessary CPU and memory to run roon core. That's the main difference. I keep my NUC in my office and a streamer in the audio rack, both on the same network.  I have used a NUC directly connected to a DAC via USB. As long as you have a good modern DAC using asynchronous USB,  for instance a Benchmark DAC 3, noise shouldn't be a problem. 

If you don't hear a difference then there's no difference to you. I wouldn't care about others opinions if I were you. I've tried streamers from about $4500 and down and heard no difference. Buy a streamer based on features (do you need AES, USB, etc.?) and usability. Someone is going to tell you it's your USB cable or your system (not revealing enough has already been covered above). Ignore them and enjoy the money you save. 

   In- have not been good at all ,I have spoken with several people have had horrible customer service ,with Innous,and  getting back to customers , that is one reason I have not considered them what’s up with them ,covid is no longer a valid excuse things are getting back to normal.

@lordmelton You got me confused with someone else, I have never posted about Aurender. Also I have no affiliation with audiotroy, he was just the first to respond to my thread with his promotion.

@auxinput My system is revealing enough, it can detect minor USB cable changes, leave alone whole component changes. Please google. Nagra Tube DAC is one of the top 2-3 DACs in the world right now.

@grannyring Agreed, which is why I put the caveats, but even though the cables are different, so is the output, it doesn't explain why there isn't a big difference in the sound. From what I read and all big noise about source being as important or more important than the DAC, I expected the massive kind of upgrade that you get when you go from a $500 Allo DAC (or a similar $500 DAC) to a Bricasti M3 (A 6000$ DAC). In which case relatively MINOR CHANGES like Tidal vs Quoboz, or USB vs SPDIF, as well as USB cables or isolation won't matter. But is a shock that even a minor change like a IC, speaker change would have more effect than changing my digital source.

BTW No Isolation on both servers, but Aurender has some decent footers, the NUC none.

I am still trying hard to get Qobuz working on Aurender, will report back or might get desperate and subscribe to Tidal to make the comparisons even more legit.

Your experience is very curious to me and completely different from my experiences with Aurender servers, I still own a N100 and a W20SE. They have completely out classed all PC based servers and other similar stand alone streamers. I would work with your dealer on this. This plain should not be true.

What is your incoming power like? USB cable. There is something very wrong. While I probably would have gone with an N10… yours should best a NUC without breaking a sweat. PCs are very noisy environments… regardless of what else is running. I recommend some real problem solving to find root cause… something is not right, although it does not stand out to me.