Thanks for a helpful response. The way you use it is different from how I am set up, and I am beginning to see that these differences just highlight how difficult it is going to be for me to figure out just what I need. I am a not too technical do-it-yourselfer that doesn’t yet know beans about networking or streaming and the associated gear. Yet. I’m trying to change that.
I just ordered an Oppo UDP-205 which unfortunately no longer has Apps, but it does have WiFi and Ethernet capability. (BTW, Fate was helping me on this one because I just by the luckiest chance happened on Oppo’s announcement that it was quitting manufacturing. They were already out of stock on the 205, while eBay was already gouging prices unconscionably, but luckily Magnolia still had a few left in inventory.) So that precious piece of gear is going in my TV room AV system, which remains 2 channel analogue by choice. But thanks to the Oppo can now be set up is now set up to be wireless. The room does have an Ethernet cable connected to my Roku video streamer, so I can split that to the Oppo.
But my living room stereo system has only traditional capability, no wireless devices, no Ethernet, etc.
So my problem is that I want to stream music to *both* systems. I’m hoping I can figure out what gear will allow me to stream the same music simultaneously to both my systems, and even my two desktop systems too, which are nicely outfitted for good sound.
The McIntosh has four sets of analogue outs so I could string some very lengthy audio cables between my two systems, but that’s not a very easy task. And I just learned that the Oppo doesn’t speak DTS PLAY-FI, the McIntosh language that it uses to communicate with a remote system, so the Oppo won’t be helpful, at least so far as I understand things at this point. I would have to buy another piece of gear that would understand the McIntosh protocol.
So far I’ve also looked at Elac Discovery, Cambridge Audio Azure 851N. So far none supports MQA and some are Bitrate challenged in other ways, like the protocol for SACD. After those, I still have the name of a Sony product to research. Then there is even higher priced stuff like Naim and Linn, and I don’t know what else!
Plus I still need to rip my CDs and maybe digitize my LPs too.
The C47 reads nice, though it doesn’t sound like a streamer. Or is it? Why do you need the C47?? Does it run a desktop audio system attached to your computer? But then you need an amp too....