Should I upgrade from a Mac Mini to a dedicated server or should I upgrade my dac?

mytek’s ime are on the bright side of neutral, lack ultimate treble refinement, can often cross the line into being a little harsh

i agree the chords in the sub $5k price range present a little lean and forward sounding, one needs to get the m-scaler in front in order to get the uber-refined yet specific and dynamic sound that is what chord brings at its very finest

i’d suggest the msb analog dac w powerbase, available around $5-6 grand used on a good day, is the warmest (yet still holographic and well detailed) toned dac in my stable, the weiss 501 is closer to the m scaler/hugo tt2 combo in tonality (dead neutral, not warm nor lean, ultra pure and refined) - the other slightly warm sounding dac that i liked, but exited, due to ergonomics rather than sound, was the mojo mystique v3, which when available falls within the op's stated budget

side note -- i am currently trying a bricasti m1se and a musetec 005 against the references above (weiss, chord stock, msb), i have not tried rockna nor aqua

i just own these dacs, i don’t sell them...

@pgastone

@jjss49: I am sure that everything ultimately matters to some degree but I like to move incrementally and see how the system evolves. And since there seem to be various approaches I am just trying to get a sense from others who have more experience and expertise than I do on where they think is the best place to start.

you can start wherever you want, but based on the component list you shared in your initial post, and assuming it is set up right, your system should definitely be good enough to hear the sonic advantages of each improvement step (streamer, dac, core/network)

in my own experience, i did the dac upgrade first, it was kind of an obvious place to start... but the streamer upgrade and core/network purification/filtering steps were each quite significant in sound quality... if put gun to head to put numbers on apportion degrees of improvement to each step, i would say 50% dac, streamer 20-25%, core/network 25-30% -- so given that, if you want the full monty, you can’t really skip any of the above, especially as the improvements are cumulative in nature

longer version of what i was trying to say earlier...

to get really excellent sound from a digital system, i think you need to do both - go to a roon nucleus or equivalent, and also, a high performing dac

in addition you will need noise filtration and management for the network feed... 

in my experience all are needed...