Looking for high end individual streamer & individual dac to work in tandem.

For a more analog like sound, I’ve been quite happy with a Pro-ject Stream Box S2 streamer & a Denafrips Pontus II DAC. The Pro-ject is about $850 and the Pontus II is about $1750. The Pontus II seems to punch quite a bit above its modest price point.

In terms of other valuable improvements: A USB noise filter on the Pro-ject USB output is helpful as well. I’m using a $60 Audioquest Jitterbug, but want to try a Uptone Audio ISO Regen. Don’t forget to budget for cables as well. A $60 Supra Cat 8 cable sounded noticeably better to me than an AmazonBasics Cat 6 ethernet cable. The USB cable that I am using is a $200 Stordiau Lush that sounded better than a generic USB cable that came with an HP printer (virtually unlistenable), $15 Belkin Gold, $60 Pangea Premier SE, and a $100 Shunyata Venom. The Stordiau cable was both smoother and more detailed than the other cables.

These are the DACs I’ve listened to in the past year. I’m happy to share my impressions of any of these.

1. Audioquest Dragonfly Red
2. Rega DAC
3. Denafrips Ares II
4. Simaudio Moon 280D
5. Chord Qutest
6. Denafrips Pontus II
7. Chord Hugo TT / MScaler
8. Schiit Yggdrasil

Thanx for the info...what was your opinion of the Chord Quest?? a fellow Tekton speaker owner raved about the DAC. I also believe it can be updated. Thanx

+1 on the Supra ethernet cable recommendation. It’s a no brainer. Would have to spend significantly more to get something better, and it might just be different, not better.

The Sonnet Morpheus (DAC) + Hermes (streamer) combo may be worth an audition. Noise-reducing i2s connection between the two. I believe Audio Art is running them as a discounted package deal right now (no affiliation).

Personally, I did not care for the Qutest. Found it cold and overly crisp in a way that (add the usual qualifiers: in my system at the time, in my room, to my ears) seemed a little robotic. Like R2-D2 was trying to serenade me.

What is the network setup? Hard wired to streamer?  Will you be playing files or just streaming a service?  Which service?

For that budget I would recommend Schiit Yggdrasil for DAC and a Aurender streamer… maybe used to reach a bit higher on the streamer. I have owned a half dozen high end DACs and a half dozen high end streamers. Do not hesitate to put more money into the streamer. The Yggdrasil DAC is an outstanding budget DAC, performing at a higher level than its price would indicate.

If you do not have an Ethernet connection near your stereo. Just get one of the wallwart wifi extenders and plug into that. Later on if you want to add a ether regenerator if you want to get fancy. But first you want a solid high performance streamer and DAC. If you get this right you will not need any or a lot of file storage because streaming from your files and from a service will sound the same and in many instance better through a streaming service as much of streaming content is of greater resolution.