Which DACs are known to be sweet/rich/relaxed?

In my experience - the transport is where it’s at - DAC comes second. With a better transport comes a better sound and edginess becomes less and less. My guess is that your DAC has much much more potential.

In my very recent experience I connected (or a competent dealer did) my cheap and somewhat edgy Metrum Octave DAC into a Grimm Audio MU1 digital front end - this totally transformed the Metrum for the better.

In a similar fashion I also fronted my DAC with a dCS Network Bridge which again took the edginess of my DAC (in fact DACs - I also have an AN 0.1x).

If I were in your shoes - I would certainly - without doubt - upgrade your transport and not your DAC.

Or, just go buy a dCS Rossini APEX (DAC and streamer) and be done with it! That thing sounds stunning.

Robert1976

per my previous response

make sure you do the easy stuff, first 

tonal balance is a big thing and easy to do with Roon dsp

so, is converting files to dsd , in roon

i tried playback design dac in my system and was astounded how sweet that was ,but expensive

then, I tried dsd conversation with Chord dac, dsd is the way to go for rock albums of 80’s 

jeff

@cleeds 

Why are you protecting a supplier from obvious dubious claims to the detriment of the thread? That is political behavior not rational behavior.