@oddiofyl @jrareform
I agree with selecting the RME ADI-2 (used) under $1,000. Especially if it comes in an AKM chipset variant. What I’ve noticed is that any system improvement is picked up and passed along. Rather uncanny that way.
With an ordinary USB cable, a significant improvement is available with DSD upsampling. Whether doing so with Audirvana or HQPlayer, it’s a serious sound enhancement.
I’d love to see this DSD Direct upsampling option compared to others like the Holo May and Denafrips, as I suspect it’s right in the ballpark. Have yet to see such a comparison to date.
Can’t speak to the 5K plus category as I’ve not had them in my home system. Hearing systems and DACs in other systems isn’t good enough for me to proffer an opinion.