@ghdprentice +1. My experience is similar-I try to do my homework and with one exception, every significant upgrade has brought significant improvement, speakers and room treatments rendering the biggest yield.
Everyone has different tastes, and financial circumstances-if mine allowed me to make a bigger investment and I did my homework, I'm pretty sure there would be improvement. Best sound I ever heard was from $850k speakers_I'll never get close to owning them, but good on those that do-they own a fabulous product, and I don't resent them a bit. Doesn't mean I can't love what I own.
I can't judge the DAC in question-I'm not one of those audiophiles possessing the ability to know how equipment sounds, particularly to someone else, when I've never heard it. I know for some, spending 50 or 100k on a DAC is not that big a deal financially. I certainly am not qualified to judge the spending choices of someone whose circumstances are far different from mine. For the great majority of the human race, spending $5k, or even less, is unaffordable or frivolous-wealth is always relative and taste is always subjective. So, I'll leave the critique of how people choose to spend their money to others. Not my business.
I'd like to hear that DAC though.
I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.
