Anyone heard any differences between streamers (streamer only, not DAC)? Or better yet, done any blind testing of different streamers (not using any built in DAC). I am asking about only the streamer hooked to an external dac with a high quality streaming service? Thanks.
About as close to zero as you can get, at least in terms of audio quality. Any meaningful differences are going to be features and usability.
Go with any streamer as long as it works and then use a decent DAC.
I use a Raspberry Pi, works perfectly fine, it’s 50$ and easy to hide cause it’s small.