a better digital front


Need I lil help here. I am in the very infantile stages of selecting my next "step up" up grade. So here is what I currently own front to back. Meridian508 24 bit cd PLAYER> Harmonic Tech magic link 2 (xlr ic)> Pass Labs x0.2 pre> Harmonic Tech magic link 2 (xlr)ic> Pass Labs x350.5 amp > Harmonic tech pro 11 speaker cables> Thiel 3.6. I am wanting to upgrade my digital front. My question is what would garner me, my desired objective? A dac? Could I use my Meridian as a suitable transport, in tangent with a worthy dac to acheive a stepped up improvement in audio quality (liquid, detailed, non-earfatigueing). As of yet I have not set a budjet boundrey as I would like to know all of my options from top to bottom. I could spend a good nickle on a digital front, while if that same nickle garnished me better results at the speaker end.
Here is what I am hearing: I am enjoying my sound greatly. However some times there in the music I hear some subtle barried detail that I can just barley hear deep down in the area that makes an "auiophile, a audiophile". May be timber decay or snare decay, or the voice harmony boundries that are just so ever almost there (defined, and seperate... but fused together do to the fact that there is just better gear out there to help raise more vails. I know the Thiel 3.6 is a far cry from where I want to go, how ever I'd like to first explore what I will need digitally to just bring out that WOW factor both NOW, and when I finally upgrade my THiels. Apples and Oranges I know. But some reason my gut says do the digital first, and speakers at some other point. I could be wrong and will entertain that notion.
But any purchase from this point on needs to be stepped up improvement. or I'll just stay with what I have. I hate spending hard earned cash for minimal improvemnts at this point. I'd rather spend 5k for the desired step up than 1k for minimal gain. There is a lot of areas for improvement here, and I'm at the point where I'm just gonna have to invest ,and I have to make good educated decesions in order to avoid the pit falls of high end mis-matching.kinda want to hear any and all opinions. KNowledge is power : ) thanks for reading
max_pain

Showing 1 response by buconero117

Soulbrass, I agree too. Tom has hit it just right. However, I would add that since it is all about the music, MaxPain needs to spend more time in exploring new music media. For every dollar I currently spend on gear, I spend 100 on acquiring new music media. I love to find new artists, old ones and often I am amazed how I've missed so many great musical talents. A few weeks ago I discovered Katherine Jenkins. Wow, what a voice. This weekend I played her Blu-Ray 'Believe' at the O2. Tells you there is a lot out there, and it is not in the gear.