Well...I am taking the plunge into digital..

Streaming can be both frustrating and incredibly enjoyable. One can have relatively simple setup, for the curious many rabbit holes to go down. I'm in curious camp, steep learning curve in beginning,  network stuff can be very complex, over time things become clearer. If seeking deeper knowledge, audiophilestyle forum is the place to go.

@poke33 You have the proper attitude going in, finding the whole thing interesting is good!

Though digital streaming is just 1's and 0's, software is the beast behind the curtain. I would recommend that you either call or PM John Rutan (Audioconnection). He can give you great information at a great price-Free!.

Bob

Thanks for the tip on John... has any of folks use the netgear Ethernet over house wire to be better than a large wireless pipe ? Seems it may be more stable yet house wire has A lot of noise

I used a Netgear extender with ethernet cable to my Node.

Now I use Google Nest, a much better solution.

AirPlay isn’t bad, maybe just a notch below Red book CD.  Chromecast sounds much better.  At any rate, using AirPlay means that you haven’t optimized what digital can do.  If you are happy with current setup, that’s great, but don’t make any conclusions about the capabilities of digital until you go there