So essentially all there's left to do is to compare it against the Taiko

Great review. This sounds right up my alley. I’m using my MacBook Air/Audirvana as my transport, and I’ve been seeking a reasonably priced alternative. My eye had been on Lumin, but the Summus is now on my radar!

So essentially you're buying a software suite and getting a fanless NUC included in the package

Looks like it's a NUC platform with passive case.

@Khronos - the Taiko uses some concepts which are similar to Summus, but also goes in very different directions for a lot of things. At $25K or so, a truly boutique piece with a very limited audience. But I guess if you have $125K speakers and such, why not?

@jwbrent - yes definitely worth a look coming from a MacBook/Audirvana situation. Lumin has merit as well, particularly if you want a great DAC built in to the streamer, but Summus seems like a better value and allows one to choose their own DAC.

@BucketInABucket - that's one way to look at it. Just keep in mind the OS in Summus is customized for the hardware. If you want to just use your own NUC or do a passive build yourself with SOtM or JCAT etc then you can just buy the Euphony OS and install from there, but it won't quite be the same (but still quite good!). Euphony is also now available on the Pink Faun Streamer 2.16 which looks like a pretty serious beast for the well-to-do audiophile. So lots of ways to approach it.

@Voxata - yes that's the general idea. Again, you can build something very similar yourself and even purchase the Euphony OS license, but it won't be identical because the version used for Summus has unique optimizations. But I can say that even grabbing a basic NUC for like $500 (or whatever the entry level models cost these days) and throwing on Euphony OS will give surprisingly great results.

@Voxata Indeed. Looks like Akasa Plato X7D.

Nice cases, I own two. It's cool this one is configured and the extra cost will definitely be justified from some users for that ease of use. Thanks for the review!

Nice review:
Questions

How much extra is the PSU?
Do they have an app for Android and/ or Apple?
Is playlit creation available and if so what are the limitations? For example my Aurender has a 2000 file limit per list...drives me insane!

@Monsterzero - This particular Keces P8 is $699 but one could use any 12V-19V PSU as long as it supplies sufficient amps. Stock is 19V/5A but I suspect you could get away with around 3A or so if you aren't using bus-powered USB hard drives with it... the front panel of my Keces P8 lists power draw and I've never seen it hit 3A.

Another thing I love about Euphony OS is that they don't require a specific app for Android/Apple. It just uses a web-based browser that works great no matter what device is used.

I don't do much with playlists these days so I can't really answer that question. I'm fairly sure it can create them and edit them, but I don't know if there's a max limit. Sorry!

I understand very little about streaming--but I know a comprehensive/excellent review when I see one!