New to audio. Is there a good DAC that can produce layers of sound?

The lks DAC 004 will produce whatever is on the recording but can be only be as good as the rest of your components if you have another weak link make sure to upgrade that also .The DAC cost around $1,400 and I had it modded buy EVS mods for another $500. Make sure to let us know how you ended up. Enjoy the holidays and happy listening.

@taww Thanks for your insightful advises! I am more than happy to see the audiophile community being generous to new comers to help from experiences!

I have a Chord Qutest, it sounds wonderful. But it does not decode MQA encoded files. It will decode everything else. If MQA is important to you consider the MyTek Dac's The chord still will sound better IMO

I recently purchased the Schiit Yggdrasil for that very reason. It has the ability to deliver detail without being too analytical and yet remains musical.  I have the Cary 306 SACD I also use as a DAC and player and its very warm sounding but lacks the detail and harmonic structure that comes through with the Yggy..  IMO

A few things.

1. Analog is better than digital. If sound quality is your top consideration look instead into a record player system.
2. The quality of digital is in large part from the design of your source and especially power systems.

For point 1 this is a well-known fact among experienced audiophiles. My own digital journey stalled when after a huge amount of money and effort was spent on maximizing digital quality could not approach the dynamic performance of my record players. Dynamic performance (not dynamic range) I believe is one of the most important factors in making sound feel live.

Now, to answer the question what DAC is best to reveal layers of music information, this is something digital can accomplish well ** BUT ** your digital system including your DAC must be engineered for this. Essentially you need to strip power noise and digital hash from the system which is feeding a good DAC. Go get yourself a ESS 9038-based DAC to start off with, look for one with dual power supplies, lots of regulation and a high end output stage (ie, discrete not opamps / chip amps). Switching power supplies (ie, walwarts) are the devil and to be avoided at all costs. You need signal line conditioning and the whole system should be on some form of power conditioning such a regenerating power supply, balanced power block (you can find these from AliExpress for cheap) or a HIGH-END AUDIOPHILE-GRADE power conditioner. At the very least plug your DAC into an unused electrical circuit in your home, NEVER into the same circuit as your PC. Good power cables also help, look for OCC copper conductors.

The more you clean up the power and signal situation to your DAC the more you will notice musical details and layering. A junk DAC will always be junk, but a good DAC still needs to be fed clean power and signals to get the performance which makes their cost worth while.

madavid0"Analog is better than digital."
That is not true or accurate if not submitted with qualification an 8-track tape cartridge is analog but not better than the best digital.

The bottleneck is in your speakers!