Chord Qutest Upgrade

@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.

I have both the Qutest and the LAiV uDAC. They have very different presentations. Both are extremely good. Just different. The LAiV is more musical with a more up front sound stage. Very easy to listen to. The Qutest has more detail and the sound stage is further back. I reality I have to optimise the speaker positions when swapping DAC's. The Qutest has to be matched with the right gear as it can be a bit analytical at times. It is very revealing and suffers no compromises. 

The R30 would be high on my list.  Here’s a review where it’s compared to the Venus 15th you may find particularly helpful if you haven’t seen it already.  I’d also have the LTA Aero DAC on the list, and they offer a trial period, which is really nice.  Hope this helps, and best of luck. 

https://soundnews.net/reviews/sources/gustard-r30-dac-review-the-r2r-perfection/

@mlapenta 

I’m in the same boat, well sort of.  I have a Denafrips Pontus ll that I really like, but I have upgraded my streamer and want to see if upgrading my DAC would bring more out of it. I will most likely stay with a “Ladder” DAC, so there’s a lot to choose from.  So far the two that are on top of my list are the Venus 15th and the LTA Aero.  Both have received nothing but positive reviews and both are similar in price.  I wonder if anyone has done a comparison between the two?  Anyway the Venus 15th is in the lead for two reasons, first is I am already familiar with the Denafrips sound and the second is the tubes in the Aero. I’m a believer in leaving my equipment on 24/7 and I can’t do that with the Aero.  My preamp and amps have tubes and also have triggers, so they go on with one press of the button.  The Aero might stand a better chance with me if it had a trigger jack.

I’ll be interested in hearing what you finally decide to get.

All the best.