A/B Comparison On A Pair Of Moderately Priced Streamers

Upgrade your DAC. In my experience the DAC has 95% of the sound the streamer is really not as important IMO. Find the streamer with the app you like and add a DAC you love. 

I did the optimized PC then to a Roon Nucleus and finally an Aurender A10 and no, not worth the upgrades at any stage. If you need Roon to live, then find a Roon server you like but do not buy that overpriced nucleus major disappointment in my experience. (Just open one and see for your self)

The Aurender A10 was ok but to be honest not $7k worth IMO. I don't particularly like the DAC in it its rather boring. If i was really honest my prior Schiit Grunder milti bit DAC ($1200usd) was far better musically then the internal DAC in the A10. Streaming wise the Aurender is ok the app is a bit finicky IMO, but an upgrade over the Roon Nucleus for sure.

Personally, I would not do it again knowing what i know now. I would have got a streamer i liked the app for and upgraded my DAC.

Really my experience shows a dedicated and optimizes PC/Apple based computer is far better than any dedicated streamer I've used. The catch here is it has to be optimized for audio streaming and nothing else. 

anyway, your milage may very but that's my experience so far with streamers. 

I went from a node with dac to a new streamer and new dac and very happy. Pretty big jump up for sure. Using the Zen Stream with aftermarket LPS. 

Upgrade your DAC. In my experience the DAC has 95% of the sound the streamer is really not as important IMO.

@glennewdick While I see how in your situation and with your streamers this could be the result, my experience is upgrading a streamer is at least as impactful as upgrading a DAC. IME everything matters, and matters significantly in a streaming setup. If I was recommending to someone how to build a good streaming setup I’d recommend something like a 50/50 split between spending on a DAC and streamer. Again, just my experience FWIW.

Would anyone make the argument that an Innuos Zen mini is an upgrade over an N100?

No   The proper comparison would be with an Innuos Zen.

I have owned both the Aurender N100, and the Innuos Zen Mini.

I ended up with the Innuos because it allows me to integrate 2 systems, whereas the Aurender does not.

Both are very good units. If you don't need to add other systems, and don't mind being locked into either Qobuz or Tidal, then the Aurender makes sense.

For me, I like to have more options. The Innuos allows you to use Roon- which I find to be quite a nice piece of software. And, though I hate to pay for more stuff, I really think it does a remarkable job of doing a lot of things in an easy to use package.

If you want a streamer with a lot of options, the Bluesound Node is probably the best one out there. Though I would get a nice DAC. Well, I would get as good a DAC, as possible for any of the choices I have given.

Bob