upgrade question regarding DAC and streamer

Since you have a good relationship with your dealer I’d think they would let you demo some streamers/DACs in your system and then you’ll know.  Personally I’m not a fan of combo units and would keep these things separate, but that’s me.  Beyond that, I agree with @ghdprentice that for imaging/soundstage I’d look to the preamp and then the amp first.  Your streamer with the LPS is on the level of the Innuos Zen, which is pretty solid and would again point me toward the pre/amp first.  That’s not to say a better streamer and DAC won’t make significant improvements because they certainly can, but again a demo would go a long way toward seeing if that’s the right thing to address given what you’re looking for.  I’ve not been a McIntosh fan in the past because I found their sound overly warm/lush and veiled in the treble/upper mids although they seem to have shifted their sound profile toward more detail include the treble/upper mids.  Still, if I’m looking for a more expanded 3D soundstage McIntosh is not where I’d go, and something like ARC and some others would offer more improvement there I’d think.  One thing I’d very strongly consider is a tube preamp if going to a tube amp is a bit too much.  Just some thoughts FWIW, and best of luck.

If you have only one source you may want to consider 

1. Best dac you can afford that has excellent preamp built in

2. A very good stereo amplifier

IMO your MA8950 is almost as much of a bottleneck as its built in DAC if you are looking for greater precision and focus. MSB has option for streamer and has a decent built in preamp from what I read. It should be in a right direction 

Wonderfully complex question and you’re sure to receive lots of opinions. I recently upgraded from a McIntosh C52 preamp which uses the same DAC as you are currently using. You are wise to consider upgrading because I know now that the Mac DAC was very limiting. My path led me to a Roon Nucleus+ with upgraded power supply and network filter, quality USB feeding an Allnic D-10000 DAC. Well, at the upper end of your budget, this solution seems like endgame. The tube DAC is OTL (read about it if you are unfamiliar). It produces an analog-like sound that even discerning vinyl only friends find impressive. It is forgiving with poorly recorded 90s digital music yet brings the most out of well recorded music. I absolutely love it.

I would follow all the advice you are getting with these guys, I have been going round and round for a couple weeks on a streamer that fits my listening tastes and what’s fits in my system. All the advice from this forum made me read, audition, talk a lot  with the wife, friends and finally decided on the Nagra streamer. It’s easy to use, no fluff and stuff, I don’t need art work looking back at me from a distance, I have my iPad, a Ethernet cable, a RCA cable and a electric plug in and you are done. It’s small, high quality, easy to integrate into your system and you are not paying for a dac you don’t need, in my case. All the streaming services are built in..

I have Revel be228 dr8ven by orchard audio starkrimson ultra with a quad artera pre. I am using zen mini IV with lpsu and denefrips Pontus 2...I tried other days and the Denefrips opened the soundstage up and gave me the resolution I wanted. Ladder dac definately did the trick.