Chord Qutest Upgrade

what nature of sonic improvement is sought with an upgrade from the qutest?  the qutest is excellent

I just figured after all these years, new R2R dacs must sound better?  I do love my Qutest, but maybe a bigger soundstage?  And on some recordings I feel even on warm setting is a bit bright and i have speakers with powered subwoofer built in .   For instance, I've heard the legendary Chord Dave and did not like it at all.   Thanks for feedback 

I had lumin u1 mini paired with the Qutest. You can improve the sonics by using a  better USB cable. I’m pretty certain it will make more difference than adding sbooster. I used Audience Studio One and it made a huge improvement. 
As to adding sbooster to Mini in general, I would just sell this streamer and go up the Lumin line. Used or new. 
 

@mlapenta hopefully this thread will save you and everyone else some time as this thread is along the same lines...  https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/dac-recommendations-under-7k

Aurender A1000 all in one streamer/dac - best for tube amps as it is single ended design. It sounds better than all those separates combined (and yes I have owned them and compared them). Denafrips takes a hit on the single ended output as it is half ladder and no buffered output. Go Cyan 2 if you must do R-2R. Qutest is sterile sounding once you actually compare it to better gear.

For my balanced system I have Lumin U2 dedicated USB Audio out to LTA Aero DAC into Woo Audio WA33 balanced with Focal Utopia. Excellent.