Clueless in Norman... Music Server?

I'm a guy of 58 who prefers things simple, and I'm willing to pay a little (to some, a lot) more to get simple. My audio system is in my living room, my computers are in my home office. I prefer them to be turned off most of the time when I'm listening, and my laptop is a work-owned one that I can't use for music streaming anyhow. I have about 500 CD's I wanted ripped, and actually started doing that with my PC and put them on the Western Digital MyCloud 2TB drive that hooks up via USB or Ethernet. I got Ethernet off my router, so did that.

In November 2015 I was at my audio dealer to buy some speakers and they sat me down in a listening room with an iPad, a pair of speakers hooked up to a Yamaha A-S801 amp, fed by a Bluesound Node. On that tablet was a library of thousands of titles, plus Tidal HiFi. I bought the speakers but wondered about the Bluesound thing because it sure worked great for someone who hates Apple products and had 30 seconds of "do this to find music and put in the play queue."

I went back and bought a Bluesound Vault (V500) original edition, as a floor demo model for $600. I bought an Android tablet from BB for $99 to run it, though I can use the app on my phone or desktop app on my PC in the other room. It came with music on it that they forgot to delete. I started ripping my CD's while listening to the Tidal HiFi account they also forgot to delete. After about 6 months, the Vault started spitting out every other CD (I'd got another 300 from a friend), then almost every one. Turns out it was a defective unit. "I thought we had replaced all those" the dealer told me, recounting that Bluesound had a run of CD readers from TEAC that weren't built to the some mounting they initially had, and they failed. I worked with the dealer and got Bluesound to upgrade me for $200 to the new Vault 2, and it's got a 2TB drive. I just restored everything I'd already ripped and backed up to the 2TB MyCloud, off and running. That was middle of 2016.

Here we are today and the Vault 2 still works flawlessly, Tidal HiFi is now my own account and I have full unfold of MQA files. I love this thing! Looks cool too, and when guests come over I just show them how it works in a monute and they're off an running. Yeah, it's comparatively a lot of money for that unit. but if you already have the CD's ripped to an NAS drive, a Bluesound Node 2 at less than half the price does the same thing. An original Node N150 is half the price of that (I can still get new ones for $300) and does the same thing out of a bigger box. I have these devices in several rooms now and can play different or same music from any or all of them.

The Vault 2 is still in daily use. I don't have many more CD's to rip, just the occasional one I'll buy than can't be found on Tidal. Very happy.
 
Guys and Gals, here is my "streaming" system:

1. I have a laptop
2. Laptop is connected to a small AudioEngine DAC via USB cable
3. DAC is connected to small ORB Audio Mini-T Amp via RCA cable
4. ORB Amp connects to my Energy RC-10 speakers.
5. I play Slacker Radio (similar to Pandora) on laptop
6. I play CDs on the disc drive of laptop
7. I play music files that I have ripped onto the laptop from my CD collection
8. I play music that I have bought online and ripped onto my laptop
9. I enjoy the music

Other than the fact that I may want to get a better small profile amplifier (maybe a Jolida hybrid amp or maybe even a tube amp for fun...to see what it sounds like) am I missing something here?

Not being sarcastic. There are Network Players for $2,000 or more. What is the advantage?
 
^ The only drawback to your setup is that the laptop has to be running whenever you want to listen to music. Which may or may not be an issue for you.

Devices like $2,000 network players may be preferred by people who have a stack of other $2,000 components and think they need another one, and/or by older people who don't understand or are resistant to the idea that doing everything with/on a computer or smart phone is how things work now.
 
Drew, I appreciate your input. Yeah I don't mind running the laptop while listening. (For the record, I would love to have a $2,000 amplifier and some $2,000 speakers!!!)
 
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