Anyone else feel like it’s the Wild Wild West?

Hard to believe I've been streaming over 10 years now!  Started with a Squeezebox Duet that seemed like the greatest thing since sliced bread then Sonos and finally my Auralic Aries Mini. The learning curve in the early days was steep, particularly adding a NAS, but looking back I can't believe how easy it all actually was.

Most of the commotion in streaming is with getting a clean signal from your wifi router to your streamer and then to your DAC. If you want to experiment with switches, optical cables, etc., go ahead, it can be done cheaply. But if you don’t want to fool with that stuff just enjoy what you have (always a good idea) and wait for someone to come up with an easy and cheap solution. It will happen.

My digital streaming journey started in 2018 and in that relatively short amount of time there have surfaced many different ways to set up and optimize the signal. I'm on board with helping to identify which solution helps with individual goals and preferences. One approach could and should start with how much are you willing to spend as a beginner, intermediate, advanced or money is not a barrier hobbyist. Will you want continuous improvement buying better products over time or is this a one and done (if only it was that easy for audiophiles)? Then start unfolding options and identifying differences and SQ questions for tubes or SS, hard wired or wifi, will it be part of a HT system as a casual listening option or a two channel dedicated listening system. (Took me awhile in the beginning of my journey to turn my opinion on making a HT system capable of 2 channel HiFi. I admit I was stubbornly wrong. Never again will those thoughts return. Instead I now have a nice switch for AV inputs that carries the music signal on spdif then inputs into my dac for watching video with 2 channel. Works for me).

For me another important answer is how resolving is your system or do you plan to make it? This would have saved me an incredible amount of time and money. I have a large box of products that didn't work out. A graveyard of cables, switches, solutions for most here that did nothing in my system. I even have a couple of streamers in that box. I'm not claiming that upgrades for noise, jitter, cable quality, switches, etc. don't make a difference because they have clearly helped so many here but I've concluded my system resolution must reside below a threshold where some products make a difference. 

I only stream these days. Streaming Qobuz through Roon mostly because of it's simplicity but to me it also sounds good. Before using Roon I streamed straight from Qobuz which also sounds good. I have HQ Player and don't use it because I do not have a library of digital music. I have no need for a music server/storage device. Turntable is back in the box and vinyl sits on the shelf. The frustrating part is I want a streamer only that is better than my iMac and have trialed several now (latest was an A10 borrowed from a neighbor) without finding a SQ improvement, differences yes but not better. I am exhausted with this upgrade pursuit for now and will set aside finding a streamer for the next couple of years to see what new products/solutions the market brings.

Meanwhile, time to upgrade speakers.

Any source other than digital streaming is just nostalgia. A good streamer with a good external DAC would beat any vinyl or CD at any price point. If you are claiming otherwise you are not living in reality, that is just admiration to nostalgia.  Collecting CD or Vinyl is sort of useless fool’s errand. When you have access to 30 million songs, what is the point of accumulating physical Vinyl or CD etc. Young generations will not have luxury of having big houses and listening rooms. Speaker technology is advancing very rapidly, bookshelf speakers are becoming extremely good. Devialet for example has great product for younger generation. Our 200 lbs speakers will turn to relics of past or collectible items. Digital is future, adopt and move on.

I started with a Bluesound as it was simple to set up, had plenty of features, good software that was easy to use, included a decent DAC, and was inexpensive compared to other solutions. Once I better understood streaming and what I really wanted to do, I got an Aurrender and a high end DAC. Sold the Bluesound for a decent price easily.  So I agree with @ghdprentice.  Just sharing my journey.