New DAC or New Speakers?

@jacupmakeup the dac I keep coming back to is the Laiv Harmony w/ddc. The best I’ve heard is the Grimm MU2 followed by the Holo May KTE. But when I added the ddc to the Laiv I think it’s right there with the May and maybe a little more dynamic. Just acquired an Aavik D280. So far I like it and it is more expressive than the Laiv. But the key question I ask myself now when trying different gear isn’t if something is “better”. Sometimes it is or sometimes it’s just different. But what I ask myself now is do I enjoy the music more with this component? Do I get more goosebumps or more wtf moments or does it make me want to keep listening, etc. With the dacs, and using the Laiv as my baseline, I haven’t found it yet. And I’ve found that some dacs sound very similar to each other. I think you get a bigger change on amps and preamps, and definitely speakers, compared to differences I hear in some dacs. But we’ll see… maybe this Aavik will be the new thing. So far it is impressive. 

A new DAC will change basically nothing. Pull one out of a big box store AVR and you won't be able to tell the difference. Want a better/different sound? Try new speakers. This isn't even a question. Anyone who suggests a new DAC thinks we're still back in 1978.

Just FYI I ended up buying the Ø Audio Frigg speakers. With my VAC amp, the Friggs sounded better than the Devore O96s and the QLN Prestige 3s. 

Thanks for following up. I am a QLN 3 owner, and they are very good, excellent imaging. But they are maybe lacking a bit of ‘fullness’ to the sound and I am looking around. To date, the best demo I have had is the Vandersteen Treo. The Frigg’s are on my radar, but no where close to demo them. On paper they seem a good fit. Can you contrast your experience with QLN vs the Frigg’s?

@zlone QLNs were definitely nice, but I didn't think they beat my Harbeth SHL5+ with sub combo. Maybe on par with that combo. 

The Friggs have a similar tonality to the QLNs, but scaled much larger, much fuller sound, way more bass, better imaging - all the things.... They were a step above the QLN 3s for sure. Maybe the 5s or 9s would be on par with the Friggs. 

The best sound I've heard so far were the O96s. But they were in an amazing room with a ridiculous 50K DAC. I preferred the Friggs to the O96s when in a more normal room and more affordable DAC.