I believe that one box vs DAC-transport very often have the same price depending on the brands compared with only difference of extra spending on digital cable that can be bought at minimal price without hurting overall digital performance(~$20 at pro-music store such as Sam-Ash) Since in digital playback you cannot go "lower than floor" you won't need to even think spending over $50 for 1m of a digital cable in any case.
The main downgrade to consider is CABLES. Yes they do matter especially on analogue domain and they can change imaging and bass extension, but only for a few percent of overall performance. There are plenty of high quality and extra low-priced cables that you can acquire instead of current expencive.
I prefere to buy unterminated cables(speaker- and interconnect- as well) and terminate them myself. So some little DIY will help a lot and not only with cables. You can also brew yourself a nice passive preamp if you have large enough output from your source component(s)
You might also consider changing NOS tubes to a regular ones that are designed by manufacturer.
IMO I would downgrade my source last since I've built system basically from the source(believe it or not from the turntable cartridge) and first "victim" will be power amp.
The main downgrade to consider is CABLES. Yes they do matter especially on analogue domain and they can change imaging and bass extension, but only for a few percent of overall performance. There are plenty of high quality and extra low-priced cables that you can acquire instead of current expencive.
I prefere to buy unterminated cables(speaker- and interconnect- as well) and terminate them myself. So some little DIY will help a lot and not only with cables. You can also brew yourself a nice passive preamp if you have large enough output from your source component(s)
You might also consider changing NOS tubes to a regular ones that are designed by manufacturer.
IMO I would downgrade my source last since I've built system basically from the source(believe it or not from the turntable cartridge) and first "victim" will be power amp.