You can’t measure sound quality. That can only be done by listening. A great listening experience has a lot to do with the subtleties that measurements can’t measure or explain.
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Keep tellin’ yourself that, Neil!
What’s with this responding to months-old posts that’s suddenly happening?
I would add a lot of those subtleties have nothing to do with the equipment either. You the listener are a factor, 
Good listening days, bad listening days, average listening days. Mood makes a difference.
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Again, this was all six months ago. Do we really need to bring this thread to life again?
There are hundreds of threads on the Roon Community forums. It’s an interesting topic for other users.
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I’ve tried a number of streamers without DAC, often called a Network Bridge.
I would rank as follows with a mark out of 10 to show how close they are in SQ-
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SOtM SMS-200 ultra NEO with SOtM sPS-500 power supply and SOtM sCLK-OCX10 (10/10)
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as above but with no external clock (9.5/10)
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Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra (9.2/10).
=3. Stack Audio Link 2 (not tested with its separate PS) (9.2/10)
=3. SOtM as above but no clock nor separate power supply. (9.2/10)
=3. Auralic Aries G1 (9.2/10) -
Chromecast Audio - can be wired via ethernet through adaptor (8/10)
=4. Home made Pi (8/10)
I would always recommend hard wiring with Ethernet. All of these that I tested with wifi sounded worse on WiFi. In fact the stream box SQ improved by simply turning the WiFi option off in the menu.
My own view is that DACs make more of a difference for the money. DAC performance on the same scale that I have had in my system would be like this: Chromecast Audio as a DAC I would give a 2/10 compared to the best I’ve heard in my system at 10, a Chord Qutest at 7, and a Pro-ject USB Dac S+ and a Topping at 5.
With a £2k-£7k digital front-end budget, say, I’d stick to the Pro-ject Streambox s2 ultra (£600) and invest the rest in the DAC.
Having said that you do get a lot more differential between amps and even more so between speakers than DACs. So worth sorting those first.
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The correct answer is the HiFiBerry DIGI+ PRO. You can get one set up for 150ish bucks. Its amazing for what it is. I love mine way more than Allo’s stuff. The next jump from there is Sonore Ultra Rendu IMO
Is Roon a requirement for the streamer you choose? I have streams that can use Roon, and those that are not Roon RAAT compatible.
For pure SQ, I don’t use Roon, although Roon UI is light years ahead of the competition.
SoTM, good sound, painful to use, frequent drop outs.
Project Stream box, sent it back absolutely useless.
Stack Link loved its sound and features, terrible in a Mac environment.
Chromecast Audio, sounded terrible.
Homemade Pi, sounded worst.
Now have Lindemann Bridge, works first time, ever time, sounds great with Denafrips Ares ii.
Holo Audio DAC and you don’t need a streamer. So good usb that you can connect directly to PC.
Best streamer I have had is Aqua LinQ