Do I really Need a Digital to Digital Converter?

Do I really need another piece of gear and another set of cables to clutter up my rack?

If you’re interested in better sound, unfortunately yes you do.  I have the same DAC and when I bought a used Iris (you could also get the Musician Pisces that’s very similar and cheaper) to take advantage of the Pegasus’ i2S connection the sound quality improved significantly — I would’ve had to pay a lot more for a new DAC than the cost of the DDC to get the level of improvement I got.  And that was just using this $6 HDMI cable from Monoprice (I got the 6” version as the shorter the better for i2S and under a foot is recommended)…

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13578

So my questions are, if what these DDCs do so important, why aren’t they built into into DACs or Streamers in the first place. Are they only incorporated in higher end digital gear but not gear at the level I am using?

Bingo.  Hope this helps.

So opinions seem to vary and with no real consensus it probably means I should consider getting a used DDC and if it doesn't improve things in a worthwhile way, I can always resell it at minimal to no loss.

That was exactly my plan, but after hearing my Pegasus with the i2S connection there was no way the Iris was going anywhere.  Lots of diverse opinions here, but I’m the only one actually using the same DAC as you so perhaps you might consider that for what it’s worth. 

@rhg3 What did you have for a DAC and DDC, and what did you change to?  Just curious. 

Soix used a DDC with the same DAC as mine and such first hand experience makes his opinion valuable to me. However, I don’t know what streamer he was using and how much of a factor your streamer plays into what benefit you get from a DDC. Do some streamer incorporate circuitry such that the benefits of a DDC are less than with others?

I’m using an iFi Zen Stream with their iPowerX power supply — not top line stuff fer sure but reputed to punch above its weight and to compete with more expensive streamers (their customer service is basically non existent however, which really sucks). Since I’m of the opinion everything matters there may be some streamers with design features that may make a DDC less impactful — I honestly don’t know but wouldn’t surprise me — but I’d think the more important factor is the DAC and how its inputs, clock, etc. are designed. That said, the favored input on the Pegasus is i2S and I certainly concur with that, but not many streamers to date offer an i2S output so that points in the direction of using a DDC. Hope this helps.

+1 @vthokie83 And please note his excellent Pontus II shares a lotta DNA with the Pegasus as they come from the same factory with many similar parts and design principles.  Not identical to be sure, but definitely highly related.