Innuos Zenith ripper/streamer

[Confused]

I stumbled across this almost by accident:

https://www.audiostream.com/content/inte...-roon-core

Again, a little off topic, but it does indicate an alternative approach to something like the Antipodes or Innuos products.  So not a nice neat one box solution, but it does allow you to use something like the SOtM sMS-200Ultra as a 'network end point', so decent sound quality, hifi kit isolated from the noisy computer kit, and so on.  Although as Petrik correctly points out, you might then start thinking about nice LPSU's for the SonicTransporter and sMS-200, a one box solution become four boxes.  Notwithstanding all this, this is still a reasonably straightforward approach that would offer a good combination of sound quality & functionality for the price.  (and then add a Mutec REF10 and MC3+USB........)

WoW !! 

You got me thinking again ... surprising that the macbook pro stands out to be the worst of all (& thats what I'm using right now). Indeed - I agree that I want to go with Roon which should be more promising for the long haul (rather than another app like the one Innuos is using). 

What would be the 'best bang for the buck' logical & viable chain (keeping Roon in mind) if one was to start life with the sT ?

'Bang for buck' is always a tricky one.  One person's best bang for buck can easily be another persons 'too expensive' / 'not worth it' / 'don't like it'.  When I think back to everything I tried with the Devialet Expert, I always thought that easily the best 'bang for buck', or sound quality per $ (£) if you like, came from the Mutec MC3+USB.  Of course the MC3+USB needs something to feed it, so that adds another $1000 or so to petrik's calculations above.  You could use an Innuos to feed a Mutec MC3+USB of course.......