When I started streaming years ago it was with a laptop....always with an external DAC. A few years ago I switched to using a Bluesound Node 2i also with an external DAC. Absolutely love it.
I've considered checking out using a Raspberry Pi. Would it be an improvement in sound quality (or otherwise) over a Node?
Either way, I've been totally content streaming the last few years. The sound quality is very good and I'm almost to the point of not being able to tell the difference anyway. I just wanna rock out.