As someone remarked earlier, I think one of the distinguishing features of this box is the (presumably high-quality) HDMI output that supports multichannel. This is of interest to me as an owner of the Anthem AVM 70, which, according to Amir’s review, has a cleaner HDMI input compared to COAX. It might also allow me to stream higher-than-192k files to the AVM 70’s internal DACs. (Maybe someone can confirm or deny if the AVM 70 would, in fact, accept 384k signals). Anyway, HDMI-out just is not something I’ve seen on any (?) other streamers, and it might help me, and others in the AVR-camp, squeak out a bit more performance from our AVRs. Beyond that, the build quality, and what’s more, the user interface/display, actually seems to match or exceed the pricepoint and is commensurate with what we should expect in this age of “retina” iPhone and tablet displays. It’s quite refreshing. Typically I hide my Pi/hat-based streamers behind furniture, but I’d be happy to look at this box, what with its VU meters and all, while I’m sitting down for a listen…A tad gimmicky, but it might add something to the experience.
And so, I might be a buyer…except that I have really come to appreciate the Roon -> HQplayer -> NAA pipeline. No need to argue over the merits of HQPlayer here. But, not including NAA along with Airplay and RAAT seems like an odd omission…