Digital music questions

Sorry - forgot to mention that Apple Music isn't native to the Bluesound and if you use it with a Bluesound, it will have to be streamed thru your phone and then via AirPlay to the Bluesound.

I use a Cambridge streamer into a Mac preamp and have it hooked up two ways so I can listen to either the Mac's DAC or the Cambridge's. I prefer the Cambridge for some reason.

I'm using Spotify and have also tried Pandora and think they both sound "ok". I was using a cheap Grace digital when I first got into streaming and thought it sounded decent and you can still but one of those for less than $200 as I just bought one for the garage setup.

Another vote for the BlueSound Node and Denafrips Pontus II 12th. When I added the Denafrips Iris DDC, the sound opened up in a unexpected way and it's amazing what this DDC has done in cleaning up the signal with the blackest background. 

Yes you can spend 10’s of thousands of dollars setting up a streaming system and it will sound very good. You can also spend only a few thousand and still get really good sound. Mid level dac and streamer will get you to 85% and then you sit back and ask us $10,000 more worth that last 15%? I use both Qobuz and Apple Music and I can tell you Apple Music just does not sound good. I have it set to hi res lossless and it just sounds muddy like there is a blanket over the speakers. I don’t know what they are or are not doing with their systems but wish they would address it. One thing though you do need to dig into the setting under general > music and make sure you change the defaults to hi res lossless.

Yes bits are bits but jitter and noise introduced into the signal affects the end sound. When using your left brain that is how you need to look at streaming. Thing is that you can’t hear the noise until it is eliminated. I as well was using my MacBook to send Qobuz to dac with usb and thought is was great. Then I tried a dedicated streamer and was quite shocked at the difference. This is with a Gustard r26 $1600, then $500 of mods to it, eversolo streamer $800. I am very happy with my streaming set up and do not feel I have to add $1000’s for that extra 15% that is out there.

This is a very enjoyable discussion with some very good recommendations. I have been streaming through my iphone with a direct connection to an external DAC. I too am in the market for a step up but my budget was not anywhere close to the yours or the recommendation by the fellow posters. I think a budget option that would provide a big step up would be the WiiM Pro with the voice remote. You can look it up and see if it has the features you need. It has a budget internal DAC in the form of the TI PCM5121. For the price of a hotel room on the outskirts of any major US city it is amazing full featured and sounds as good as it sounds. Once your are ready to move up it can be reassigned to the garage or hunting shack system. Enjoy the search and the joy of listening to your music for its pleasure without your left brain interference.