@astelmaszek Funny, I can’t think of anyone I’ve met like me. If I did, I probably wouldn’t like him either.
The Aqua pieces are simply in a different class of performance and price than Anthem. Moreover, if you buy into the R2R construct (I do and have also compared the Formula closely to Denafrips Terminator and Audio gd) it’s a contradiction in terms to pass that through further A/D/A delta sigma conversions.
That said, these days performance at the entry level is higher than ever. I have a $1K Tascam DA-3000 whose DAC gets quite close to its big brother Esoteric K-01X, and $1k Pass ACA 1.6 Class A kit monoblocks, that within their 10wpc limitation, sound not unlike the XA-160.8.
BTW, you have a nice well-balanced office system.