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

I found a really high quality streamer is the key. I alway put every penny I can into the best possible component. Then I can listen to and appreciate it while my financial situation improves. Then I start evaluating, cables, then powercords and power conditioning. You can get small improvements from all of these… but to me, all depends on the best possible components! My streamer is very satisfying and on the same level as my analog end… I have not fiddled with my modem.

I now have two direct power lines, a power conditioner… these improve the whole system significantly. I think the ether regeneration module did a bit of good… but I bought based on reviews amid some other big upgrades.

I have two Aurender streamers and there is no discernible difference between CD, ripped, and streamed files… well, only steaming can be better since so many of the files are of higher resolution. 
A few years ago this was not true.

Important point above re: considering local rip quality vs. streaming quality. On my previous Naim set-up, there was quite a gap (even with Ethernet filter) between streaming via Qobuz/Tidal vs. local files. To the point where I only used the streaming services for music discovery, and could only listen to local rips for long-term listening.

In my current setup, the gap is almost non-existent. Maybe slightly more air from a local rip if I do an A/B and, but I have to strain to hear it -- it's insignificant. I still use local rips because I want to support my favorite artists, particularly young up and comers on Bandcamp, who are paid peanuts from the streaming services.

  I am not familiar with the OP current CD player.  Does it have digital inputs?  If so and since you like the sound of your CD replay then I would use that as the DAC.  I believe the OP was asked if they will be using streaming services only or burning their CDs and I don’t recall the answer.  Also, does the OP require Bluetooth, AirPlay, or Chromecast?
  The DAC is the more important determinant of the sound, perhaps 80%.  If you can’t use your current CD player internal DAC, and since you want to approximate the sound of your current CD replay, does the CD manufacturer also make a free standing DAC?  If not, perhaps contact them and see if they recommend a certain DAC.
  I really like my Bryston DAC3. I would avoid their streamers and their combination DAC/streamer.  Any specific recommendations would depend upon whether or not you need to replay ripped discs.  If so, I really like my Melco N100.

My notes on the Pontus compared to the Qutest:

Impressions of the Pontus:

Resolution and Warmth: I always thought that resolution and warmth were traits on two opposite ends of a spectrum. It has already been eye-opening that Pontus actually seems to have even more detail and resolution than the Qutest and also more smoothness and warmth than the Ares II. What's interesting is that this resolution is delivered in a more lifelike and natural sounding way than via the Qutest. I'm noticing this right now with the piano and string bass in the 'Pueblo Nuevo' track on the Buena Vista Social Club recording as well as the trumpet and the tonal quality of metal and wood percussion instruments. The Pontus sounds both smooth and full in its sound. One artist for which this unique combination of resolution and warmth really does justice is Jimi Hendrix. I often have not liked to listen to Hendrix on digital due to harshness and noise from jitter and analog sources, compared to my typically better experience of listening to Jimi Hendrix on vinyl. I'm not finding this to be the case with the Pontus. Jimi Hendrix' Voodoo Child is sounding both engaging and listenable via the Pontus.With the Pontus powered by a Shunyata Venom power cord, I'm hearing no sense of the slight harshness that I heard from the Ares. I also have a Synergistic Research UEF Blue power cord that made the Ares II DAC sound smoother without any loss of detail. I'll try that out on the Pontus DAC in a couple of days to see if it makes any difference to the sound of the Pontus.

Presence: Instruments and voices are conveyed by the Pontus with what sounds like an appropriate level of weight for each instrument. On the 'Orgullecida' track on the Buena Vista Social Club recording, the string bass has a greater level of fullness in its presentation than the voices, electric guitar and trumpet as would be appropriate in real life. In contrast, the Qutest communicates the details but seems to be less able to convey the weight and fullness of each voice and instrument's sound. The 'air' around voices are also conveyed by the Pontus in a very palpable way but with a sense of refinement and restraint that sounds realistic when compared to a real-life performance. In the Cowboy Junkies' 'Trinity Sessions' recording, I hear this very clearly in the 'Blue Moon Revisited' track.

Soundstage: The Pontus definitely has a broader and fuller soundstage than the Ares and the Qutest as well, I think. The fullness of the Pontus sound might be a major contributor to my perception that it has a bigger soundstage than the Qutest. I hear this in the Cowboy Junkies' Trinity Sessions album.Pace & Emotional Range: What appeals to me most about the Pontus and perhaps what I noticed first was wide range of pace that the Pontus is able to convey. Some DACs like the Qutest have good pace. Other DACs such as the Ares II sound more relaxed. It's intriguing to hear a DAC that can sound both relaxed as well as upbeat and dynamic as needed. For the Pontus, that ability allows it to sound relaxed and calm or energetic and dynamic depending on the music being played. Music through the Pontus seems to be conveyed as the artist or composer intended instead of the Pontus imposing its own sonic signature onto the music. Examples of these two ends of this scale that I have heard are Sara Watkins' new 'Under the Pepper Tree' album versus Les McCann & Eddie Harris' excellent 'Swiss Movement' recording of their performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Flow & Continuity: Consistent with my comments on the Pontus' adaptability in terms of pace and emotional range, it is conveys the flow of music really well. Its presentation makes it easy to "follow the tune" when listening to music. For lack of a better way to describe this quality of the Pontus, I would say that it has a lot of patience in how it conveys music. It's not in a rush to get the next note out as the Qutest sometimes seems to be, but can play quicker or slower depending on emotional nature of the music. The 'Murmullo' track on the Buena Vista Social Club recording has a languid pace that the Pontus conveys well while not losing the underlying drive behind the music. Partly this is due to good timing, but the Pontus' ability to convey tonal colors also helps it to provide this sense of drive and forward movement even on music that is not conducive to an insistent sense of pace. I'd like to highlight one recording on which I'm hearing this quality from the Pontus, but the truth is that I hear this sense of flow on everything I'm listening to with the Pontus.

Sound quality of streamed versus local files: Something else that I've heard is that the Pontus seems to at least narrow the sonic difference between streamed Qobuz files and local files. Local files have always sounded better to me. I attribute that to a shorter signal chain without the digital and analog (such as EMI) noise that might come in through being sent through the internet and then transmitted through my local network. Listening to local files and the equivalent music track from Qobuz were so very close in sound quality when doing sighted listening, that I'm don't know if I could distinguish the difference in blind testing.

What listening preferences would the Pontus fit well: The Pontus would be a great choice for anyone that appreciates the sound and feel of live music. More than any other DAC I heard, the Pontus seems to savor the texture and feel of every note of music. The Pontus does particularly well with reproducing the textures, tonal quality and emotions of voices and acoustic music.

What listening preferences would the Pontus not fit as well: Listeners that want a sharp cut-glass feel to their music might not appreciate the Pontus as much. The Pontus digs out a lot of detail, but it presents detail in a way that sounds natural. If you listen to a lot of electronic music and are looking for razor-sharp sounding transients, the Pontus might not fit your preferences as much as the Qutest.

Summary: I'm sure there are more expensive DACs that might improve on some of the performance aspects of the Pontus, but I am so impressed by the natural and lifelike way that the Pontus communicates music with no apparent shortcomings in resolution of detail, pace, or tonal quality. I greatly appreciate that the Pontus seems to be causing no listening fatigue for me while still presenting music in a full and detailed sounding manner.

These were my listening notes on the Qutest. The Qutest was pretty good, BUT the Pontus is much better in terms of naturalness of tone, detail/resolution, and conveying a sense of ease or urgency when appropriate. 

Background on the Qutest as a reference point: The Qutest sounded really good with notably a high level of detail retrieval. There were two shortcomings that stood out for me about the Qutest.

1. With the stock power supply, there was a slight, and I do mean slight, degree of harshness. I found that using a pretty common Anker phone/laptop backup battery both reduced the noise floor and took away that slight bit of harshness. NOTE: if you try this, make sure the battery's output is 5V.
2. The Qutest is exceptionally detailed in its sound. But, the Qutest conveyed that detail in a way that seemed artificially Technicolor. Meaning that there was a lot of detail, but either conveyed to a degree or conveyed in a way that didn't feel natural or lifelike to me. It sounded slightly, and again I do mean slightly, more "audiophile" than musical in sound.

I have a customer who has the Ulfberhts and also am a huge fan of the K5xeMP.  I had one for several years.  Very nice system.  

There are a lot of options to get you where you want to go.  The key is answering what you are looking for in terms of sound - detail or soundstage.  Obviously you want both but it is a bit of a tradeoff.  

Have you considered what software you want to use?  Roon is popular but is a bit pricey.  There are other options.  

These two questions sort of dictate the best solution.  I am throwing this out purely as an example, you could get a Roon Nucleus and an Audiobyte Hydravox DAC and be on your budget.  This would deliver a lot of detail with a wide but not very deep soundstage.  It also requires a software choice and commitment to Roon.  You may or may not like this.

My bias is toward a great DAC and then add a server where you can store your CDs after ripping them longer term.    

I think an R2R DAC would provide the type of sound you’re looking for and would also recommend the Pontus ll along with the Musician Pegasus or Aquarius and pair it with something like the ProJect Stream Box.  Best of luck. 

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.

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

+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.

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

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