dac recommendations for turntable listener?

@reimarc

I have a Gustard R26 dac.  I've thought about upgrading, but I think it would take an upgrade like you made to make it worthwhile. 

Definitely a DAC with a tube in it. Audio Mirror Toubadour IV $3500.....Smooth as Silk!

I had a DirectStream I DAC with a network card that I was NOT happy with. It sounded like your description. HOWEVER I upgraded to a DirestStream II and added a AirLens and VIOLA! actual analogue sound. 

I have auditioned a number of DACs and the one that sounds better than the above upgrade (to me ) is 2.5X the price PlayBack Designs. The extra 17K price tag was as they say "juice not worth the squeeze".  If I had 300 million dollars it would be no biggie. However I'm still a working stiff so I'm on a budget. 

For digital, removing noise from your system in the form of EMI or RFI really helps produce smoother sound. You've taken the first steps by getting the Blluesound Node streamer. Other steps that can help are:

1. Turning off the Wi-Fi receiver in your streamer and using an Ethernet cable. One way to use an Ethernet cable without running cable all through your house is to use a Wi-Fi extender to create an Ethernet access port which then connects to your streamer via an Ethernet cable. That at least gets the Wi-Fi receiver and the RFI it generates away from your streamer.
2. Local files can sound better than streamed files.
3. USB cables matter. I'm using a Stordiau Phasure Lush.
4. An Audioquest Jitterbug noise filter on the USB output of my streamer seemed to make a positive difference.
5. For streaming, the fairly inexpensive Supra Cat 8 cable works well in my system.
6. My latest upgrade is an Audioquest Niagara 1200 power conditioner. That seems to have taken out any remaining harshness that was causing listening fatigue after several hours of listening.

I also rejected digital audio for a long time because it caused listening fatigue for me. From 1989 to 2021, I didn't have any digital in my home system. I would stream Qobuz using my laptop or phone and headphones. That changed during the pandemic when I was doing a lot of music listening while doing work and I started building up a digital source for my home system.

I have immense experience in analog (several friends are also remastering engineers).  We use the same cartridge (mine is low output-I love this cartridge for my mono and stereo LPs, 31,100 of them).

I went through tube CD players and hated CD sound for decades.  The EAR Acute allowed my to get a semblance of analog sound.  I tried high priced DACs to no avail for 4 years.

The first DAC that permitted me to share in analog sound quality is the only Toppin g DAC we like, the D70s.  We haven't heard the latest ones.  

I opted for an SOTA DAC with pre-amp in the Lampizator Poseidon.  It is 50X more expensive than the Topping and only 30% to 50% better.  Even the Lampizator Baltic compares very favorably to analog.  I have 16,100 CDs.  

I splurged and purchased the Jay's Audio CDt3 Mk3 to go with the Topping, then the Poseidon.  My best friend purchased the lesser cost Shiit Urd transport.  Great choices like a great cartridge but the lasers should last 10,000-15,000 hours (my EAR Acute for 15 years of daily use-amazing).  

The PS Audio gear-open it up and looked at the components.  You'll know why they don't perform well.  

P.S. 2 out of 3 of the Topping units I mentioned sounded fantastic and 1 was sonically inferior.  For $350 to $500 current going price, it's a small investment.