Start with Upgrade to DAC?

mike4597

As others have said, you have 3 glaring weak spots: Streaming service (move to Qobuz or Tidal), streamer, and DAC

If I were in your shoes, I would upgrade the DAC first. I'd look at: Denafrips Pontus II R2R ladder DAC (I own this DAC - $1,500 used), Schitt Yggy LIM DAC ($1,750 used), Laiv Harmony DAC ($2,700 new), or the recently released LTA Aero DAC ($3,950 new). I've not heard the LTA, but it's getting great reviews already.

Whatever is left (or when you can save more), then upgrade the streamer once you've got a nice DAC

Treating the room should come first.

Then consider your use of streaming. Would it serve as a replacement for playing CDs? If so invest in Streamer and DAC. If not consider the purchase of a quality transport to replace your NAD player.

@mike4597 - I feel you are getting a lot of bad advice. Replacing your speakers? Your speakers are amazing. I have the Fyne Audio 502SPs and love them. I am using a sub which I think adds a lot of extension. I think your weakest link is your streamer. I would start with the streamer and then the dac. If you go used and increase your budget a little you could get a streamer and dac for under $5k. I know that’s easy for me to say, but I think you will hear an audible difference with a new steamer. 

@stevebohnii 

??? You have essentially the same streamer as the OP - it’s just yours, the IFi Neo, combines a DAC with the streamer, while his, the iFi Zen, does not.  Apparently, in your system, you bypass the internal dac in your streamer, which makes sense, but then why not just go with the Zen?  So on what basis are you concluding that the OP needs a “better” streamer?

@mdalton 

Very nice to meet you sir. I greatly appreciate your response and your opinion. I never said the ifi Zen was a bad product, but looking at Mike’s setup the weakest link is the ifi Zen. I also had a Zen before upgrading to the Neo. Using the same external ddc and dac I used with the Zen, Neo’s sound quality is much more open, detailed, and balanced than the Zen. To say the only difference between the two is that the Neo comes with a dac, I believe is misleading. The streamer components within the Neo are much more advanced than those in the Zen. First, the capacitors in the Neo are way more superior than those in the Zen. The Neo also uses a more advanced processor than the Zen. The Zen uses an ARM Cortex and the Neo uses the XMOS 16x. Additional improvements that might not be directly associated with the streamer but has a very big impact on sound quality (that is not come with the Zen) is ifi’s Optibox. The LAN signal from the router is regenerated, reclocked and rebalanced by the OptiBox; true galvanic isolation is applied, with zero parasitic capacitance and inductance (ifi website). Finally, the Neo comes with four digital filters that allows me to adjust the sound of my external dac depending on if I’m using OS or NOS. These filters make a pretty big difference in sound quality. 

I greatly respect your opinion but to say the only difference between the Zen and the Neo is that the Neo has a dac with the exact same streamer, is misleading. The difference in sound quality between the two components is due to differences in technology.