I am a big believer in synergy. I had a NAD m51. Sounded great in my system. Why I replaced it with the RME , I’ll never know.
That’s not to say I didn’t like the RME , I did but the NAD has a more natural sound to me. The RME is what you would expect from a studio DAC , clean and clear.
I have an all tube system, have for a while. Except the DAC. I have always said I would never buy a tube DAC. I guess my logic was that if it had tubes it would be colored and not true to the source.
Then I put a LAB 12 DAC 1 Reference in the system and it’s like the best of body worlds. Plenty of detail, great tone , body, it just rocks….