adding a DAC/Streamer or what

In your budget of 10K for DAC and streamer, my choice will be (assuming you will get deals rather than full price):
1. Chord DAVE with Innuos Zen Mk3
2. Bricasti M3 with Innuois Zenith Mk3 or Lumin U1
3. Chord TT2 with M scaler with Lumin U1 mini
4. Lumin X1 with fiber optic ethernet switch
5. Mola Mola Tambaqui

can't say i have tried any 10k dacs but i would say there must be rapidly diminishing returns over 3-4-5 grand

maybe i am wrong - no doubt owners of 10k dacs will say so  :)

I am not looking for a 10k DAC. Instead I expressed my budget of purchasing separately a DAC and a streamer for under 10k! Sorry for any confusion as I am in an information gathering mode from those with much more expertise and experience than myself
 Thank you to everyone who has shared their experiences and opinions. I hope to hear more!

With the rapid advancement i’ve seen/heard in DACs, diminishing returns will hit you like a brick wall on well made stand-alone DeltaSigma DACs beyond a 1000 bucks. This is not the year 2000 when it actually made sense to dump significant cash into a standalone dac. I can gaurantee you this. When PS Audio snake oil DACs charge you 5k for deltasigma, it is just a pathetic attempt in coloration and tweaks to make it sound more "analog"!. They are able to fool the older guys out there with this crap. Examples of astounding non-snake oil stand alone deltasigma dacs are Topping D90, Aune S8, etc. If you want to spend more than that, I would recommend you go for a good DAC implementation in a CD player, network player etc for the added functionality (Yamaha CD-S2100 @ 3k, Marantz ND8006 @ 1.2k etc....The Marantz is a phenomenal value unit.

Remember, when you go separate streamer transport, separate CD transport, separate DAC, etc, you are also paying for the extra/redundant fancy chassis, knobs etc. Sonically, this is also an area in hifi where separates ’can’ sound worse than a well integrated cdplayer+dac or streamer/networkplayer+dac. In other words, separates are not always better here. So be careful.

The only exception here is R2R DACs. They are in a class of their own and deserve the stand-alone DAC purchase.If you are a big fan of the analog like sound (but without all the pestilence of a turntable setup), go with the R2R offerings like Denafrips Ares II, Denafrips Venus, Musician Pegasus, etc and prepare to get mind blown.

So, in short,
IF you’re looking into Delta Sigma DACs, buy a good DS dac implementation in a streamer or CD player/streamer/combo unit instead.

IF you’re looking into R2R DACs, but strapped for cash, buy a cheap streamer or cd player for use as a transport and buy a good stand alone R2R DAC.

My recommendation would be that you get something like a Marantz ND8006 (streamer+cd player+dac), which has digital outs. This unit will get you to the peak of what DeltaSigma can get you. When you have cash and looking for a separate DAC, get a R2R Denafrips Venus or similar (in this case, the ND8006 will serve as a transport). This will have all bases covered. Don’t throw your cash on a standalone DeltaSigma DAC.

Good luck.

Thanks to Raw33 for starting a great thread and all those who've contributed.  I am where you were last fall.  Cheers.