I’ve tried a number of streamers without DAC.
I would rank as follows with a mark out of 10 to show how close they are in SQ-
1. SOtM SMS-200 ultra NEO with SOtM sPS-500 power supply and SOtM sCLK-OCX10 (10/10)
2. as above but with no external clock (9.5/10)
3. Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra (9.2/10).
=3. Stack Audio Link 2 (not tested with its separate PS) (9.2/10)
=3. SOtM as above but no clock nor separate power supply. (9.2/10)
=3. Auralic Aries G1 (9.2/10)
4. Chromecast Audio - can be wired via ethernet through adaptor (8/10)
=4. Home made Pi (8/10)
I would always recommend hard wiring with Ethernet.