A quick question on what streamers to consider.......

Bluesound Vault 2i streams like a champ. Rips CD’s to FLAC. Stores over 2000 in its internal drive. Under $1300 USD.

Worry about updates? Some old OSs totally sucked before recent updates. They ALL update before first play, like all digital devices and programs. Using Wi-Fi is recommended to a dedicated Wi-Fi receiver like a node system or an extender for rock solid internet. Your first streamer should be a Bluesound, it is the easiest. You can’t be serious about a digital device without mentioning connection (to the DAC) requirements or preferences. No mention of a streaming service either. Network players all have different ISP radio stations that can be easily found. You might settle for Radio Paradise (not on all of them) Forget about ever trying Roon with an Aurender. For background music a $100 Wiim and Spotify is overkill. Alexa is probably sufficient for a Prime member. You are going to have to educate yourself, $2-5K won’t do that.

Everybody keeps suggesting Aurender, I sold mine and bought a Lumin instead. I use Roon and although Aurender keeps talking about adding it they never seem to get there. Aurender interface is just too basic for my liking and the sound quality between Lumin and Aurender at the different price points is moot.

I’ve been wondering about adding a streamer also.  I have a Bluesound Vault 2i that allows streaming from another device, like my phone or tablet, but I wonder about the sound quality when the streaming comes from something like an iPhone.  Aurender seems to be the common choice — then to decide which model.  N100 is reputed to be significantly superior to the N200, but the 100 is closer to what I’d want to spend.  I noticed the N150, but not seen much comment on that as compared to the others.  Lumin is one I’ve heard of but not seen much commentary on.  Each device seems to feature some streaming services and not others.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a nearby audio store to visit and consider the models in question.  Audiophile-level purchasing for bang-for-buck can sure be complicated! 

Even with a budget of $2000, that is overkill, you can easily find what you need for much less.