I no longer use an Ethernet endpoint like the microRendu or sMS-200. They have their positives but also their negatives. My setup is now straight USB. I have found that if you decide to use a single box machine as both your server and renderer and if you carefully pick out your low power components, replace bad clocks, and power everything with the lowest noise, lowest impedance PSU you can find, this kind of setup can be superior to the Ethernet endpoints. Moreover, you also now have the flexibility of using Chord's ASIO driver for Windows which I have found to be superior in some ways to the built-in drivers that the Linux-based endpoints use. For example, with Chord's ASIO driver, you can play DSD files natively up to DSD512 without skips or pauses. Furthermore, you have greater options with software players including video options like YouTube, Vimeo, Blu-Ray playback, etc. My particular server draws less than 10 watts and generates very little heat. Running it 24/7, I have not had to reboot it once due to a lockup.
While my build is more complicated than many will care to undertake, it is actually quite straightforward. As I evaluated different motherboards, CPUs, RAM, storage devices, output cards, PSUs, clocks, anti-vibration devices and cables, I was able to appreciate the individual contribution of each of these items and while the individual impact of some of these components may be small, their impact is easily heard with BluDave, otherwise, I would not have bothered to include them. Their collective impact, however, is quite large and I could never see myself going back to a simple Mac or PC. If I had to point out the 2 areas that had the greatest impact, it is the PSU and the replacement of noisy clocks. This is not the place to detail the specifics of my build but for those interested, here is a link:
https://www.computeraudiophile.com/...reaming/?page=153&tab=comments#comment-724987
Having done all this, I have a few servers coming in for evaluation including the Zenith SE and the new Antipodes DX Gen3. I am always open to someone creating something better.