I’m sorry I did not read all the post, someone may have already suggested this. If you can add a DDC a nice usb and a silver or very nice short I2s cable. This will help dig much deeper into the recording. Everything will be more pronounced and natural.
I was going up upgrade my dac but gave this a shot first and very amazed at the improvement. I would not skimp on the cables at least the i2s/hdmi.