I have an Ayre qx 5 twenty and and Ax5 twenty amp. Done for life with this core set up, as good as anything I've owned over the years (a lot) or heard at shows and suits my sonic preferences best. Just added a new streamer and may diddle around with speakers in the future, but the dac/amp setup is staying. Updrade-itus over. It is possible to be happy with your system, took awhile to get there though and lots of green.
"Diminishing Returns"
I have a relatively simple system in my smaller room. My system is made up of older gear. My system consists of: a phenomenal pair of Revel Salon 2 speakers, Hegel H590 integrated amp, Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty Streaming DAC, Roon Nucleus Plus music server, Audioquest Niagara 3000 conditioner, Audioquest & ATC power cables, JPS Labs speakers cables, Audioquest XLR interconnects, Shunyata Research ethernet cables, and an assortment of tweeks throughout my system. I get to hear all kinds of great sounding gear in all price ranges at my local dealers and also at the audio shows I attend every year. It’s nothing for todays manufactures to ask 30K, 40K, 100K for a pair of stand mount, bookshelf speakers. There’s such a wonderful, beautiful sea of great gears out there for audiophiles to choose from. However, the sound quality of my relatively simple audio system is so incredibly compelling and so incredibly satisfying and provides me with such a high level of musical bliss in my room, I just don’t have a desire to spend more. I’m sure there’s others out there who feel the same about their speakers/system.