There you go! An inexpensive
Beelink Mini S computer transformed into a low power (less than 17W peak), very acoustically and electronically quiet machine that can handle Roon multichannel 7.1 streams through HDMI as well as high quality filtering through HQPlayer to a good USB 2-channel DAC in Linux/Ubuntu OS.
HQPlayer Desktop costs around US$215, plus US$180 for the Beelink Mini S machine, so in total for around US$400 plus a bit of DIY time & know-how, we can achieve "megatap" PCM upsampling easily equivalent (and actually superior) to the
Chord Hugo M-Scaler which they're asking US$5000+ for. Furthermore, HQPlayer is more versatile with many filtering algorithm options and the ability to convert PCM to DSD adds another dimension of listening/experimentation.
Again, let's not forget the ability to stream multichannel content.
This is what "value" looks like! Yeah, I know,
Roon and the music server computer also cost money. Plus you need at least a good amp and some great speakers to gain from all this processing. Nobody said audiophilia is totally without some base cost even if we keep the cost of parts like the computer down!