I experienced pretty much what you describe about being concerned about which files you listen to. Only this happened when I purchased a better network streamer than the one that came in the Marantz. might I suggest you revisit your feelings about critical listening with a streamer. I think a lot of people overlook the importance of a good streamer with so many people claiming it’s just a computer in a box. This may be true, but apparently these companies have some magic music dust that they’re sprinkling inside these boxes. It’s worth a look trust me. enjoy the day 🎼
New DAC - better low resolution digital music performance?
Has anyone experienced this, where a DAC upgrade shrunk the perceived enjoyment difference between low and high resolution digital music files? After setting up a new DAC and optimizing cables and power supply, I am shocked at how much the performance separation has closed between file formats. AAC files now sound pretty good irrespective of genre, and it has me reexamining the value proposition of expensive hi res downloads. I would add that for hi res material, it is now much easier for me to distinguish between recording quality, venue, engineering decisions - so that performance improved as well, just not as much as it did for low resolution digital music.
Hans Beekhuyzen has some thoughts on this, and claims that better digital playback systems can eliminate noise associated with severe upsampling of low res material. My recent subjective experience bears this out.
A qualification, this is for all files played from a hard drive, not streaming. I still am not sold on streaming for critical listening, but feel it’s fine for background listening and exploring new music. This across multiple systems of varying quality. Hard wire to source is still hard to beat.
kn