Renderer of Choice?

[roadster]

My preference is for a small ( fanless ) windows 10 computer from the Gigabyte Brix range. This gives far more flexibility of sources:-
Minimserver, BBC iPlayer, internet radio, streaming services, local files etc. etc. I only use the computers digital audio outputs and have tried a few different USB devices such as M2tech,RME products, and others. In the digital domain there are only small audible differences and I have kept D/A conversion separate because this is where the technology can make a difference. In terms of source management I use foobar 2K for the best material, my own 192KHz music collection, but also use other players for more basic internet radio streams. Being able to customise playlists so easily via text editing or generate them automatically using Foobar 2K or other software such as "Playlist Creator" is very useful as I hate trying to use small touch screen devices for anything fiddly.
The A to D and D to A elements in the chain are where the magic is captured and retrieved and for me the players in the digital domain are about convenience and practicality where the software and hardware should add nothing and take away nothing. Some understanding of how badly configured windows OS audio options could upset this is necessary, but for now I rely on ASIO drivers and get brilliant results by keeping the spending bias towards DAC, amplifiers, and speakers.