recently switched from the transport-dac camp, and entered the computer audio camp, and will not look back. I had a PS audio perfect wave dac/transport; which was bettered when I switched to the Ayon CD5S; I enjoyed the buffered tube dac/preamp section; and the Philips transport was quite excellent. I totally enjoyed the Ayon until I had an in home demo with the Playback Design 5 dec; using standard inexpensive windows based laptop, and Seagate 4TB hard drives, and standard usb cable; but the Playback design external x-usb converter box into dec. This setup upsamples all digital sources to 2xDSD playback. This for me was the best digital I've heard, and I have a very revealing system. My bass went much deeper; the detail and air on cymbals, flute, strings, and female voices was exquisite; the sound stage was the best I've experienced in my rig. I would rip a rebook CD; and play via usb into Playback design, and it was an amazing and positive listening experience. The price of the PD DAC 5 is not inexpensive; but less than some of the contenders posted above; and the computer side of this, with all back up hard drives; and powered usb switches, and JRiver software was around $800 extra..I have all my library now on hard drives. I have no digital glare, or listening fatigue . Now; when I listen to DSD download files; its even a more amazing experience. If you are only using computer audio at 24/192; and don't have the ability to upsample to DSD I feel you are missing out. There are a handful of other dacs that process DSD; and more are coming...so I'm not saying that Playback Design is the best at this; I would assume the EMM/Meitner products, Chord, MSB analog, and Briscasti will also be able to handle DSD upconversion via usb.
If you are asking this question; be sure your dac can support DSD files and upconversion; I think you will be presently surprised by the sonic improvement; and the cost of admission is less than a full Dcs stack, or high end MSB unit. I don't miss my transport; simply rip; and enjoy DSD playback. The PD unit was easy to set up; no choices of different filters, or external clocks; and the burn in time was easy also; around 200 hours.
Good luck with your search, you have a great system; trying to get the lest level of improvement is important, and sometimes a challenge.
If you are asking this question; be sure your dac can support DSD files and upconversion; I think you will be presently surprised by the sonic improvement; and the cost of admission is less than a full Dcs stack, or high end MSB unit. I don't miss my transport; simply rip; and enjoy DSD playback. The PD unit was easy to set up; no choices of different filters, or external clocks; and the burn in time was easy also; around 200 hours.
Good luck with your search, you have a great system; trying to get the lest level of improvement is important, and sometimes a challenge.