My streamer doesn't have a good fantom centerDSP

@lanx0003 yes, I'm using the software volume, will turn it off and see what happens.  

Have done both connect, and through the CA app. It doesn't make any difference. Just pulled in my bedroom speakers to see if that changes anything. It does the same thing. 

Thinking it's a combo of variable bit rate of the songs, vasty different quality of the songs, and maybe my setup is a little too revealing for a low end DAC. Think I'll be on the lookout for a Black Friday sale on a new streamer, move this one to the garage setup.

I'd audition some other streamer/DAC combos... sounds like your setup mechanically is good, so don't move anything.  I know my testing of a few streamer/DAC, from Bluesound Node to ultimately a Lumin X1 that I bought, you will find very different levels of transparency.  I was chasing my Vinyl side, but now it's not even connected.  The Lumin DAC sounds like vinyl only quieter to me.

Maybe you can find one that sounds good in your setup as-is...

@fburkeen I bet the  Lumin X1 is nice, it's $14k!! That's around the price of my entire system. My budget is more in the sub $2k area. If I had $14k to spend, it would be with new speakers. Although I did just purchase 2 new Martin Logan Abyss subs to replace my vintage ML Depth subs. 

Sorry...  my point wasn't really related to where my journey took me.  It was that I heard differences between every product I listened to and you could consider a similar approach.  

The DAC is the voicing of what comes out of the Streamer and has a big impact on what you'll hear.  If your other sources can give you the sound you want, I think you need to find a Streamer/DAC that works well with your system.  I listened to several products, narrowed down to a couple that sounded good in showroom, then demo'd those with my system and compared to my vinyl source.

My vinyl side is pretty quiet and the other finalist (Linn something or other) just couldn't get there, mostly in musicality in this case.  The X1 beats the vinyl in most recordings and now I use the Lumin preamp and go straight to the amp.  Again, my journey...  but I think you should listen for yourself.

Listen to ERIK.