Streaming through upconverting DAC - can I even improve audio quality?

For checking if your system can do DSD, you can download a sampler from the Native DSD site for a symbolic cost. If the playback of the sampler disables the volume control on your mac / pc (or your DAC tells you this is DSD), you are probably in the right zone. If not, it is probably DSD downconverted to PCM (or in a PCM ’container’, DoP), which is not what you want. True / native DSD to my ears sounds better, across a variety of streamers and DACs. This is due to a better file format (compared to PCM) but probably also to the simple fact that the pc or dac volume is bypassed. But in order to take advantage of this, you cannot have your DAC (with volume bypassed) directly into your amp, you need a preamp or an integrated amp that includes a preamp. Your volume control is now no longer in the digital part of the chain, but in the analog part, after the DAC. A sonic benefit, often.

Well, while I put this project on hold for a while I revisited it when reading about the new Luxman D-07x SACD player.  It is similar to the Marantz SA-10 in respect to promoting use of its DAC separately for streaming.  Even the "instructions" about doing so are the same and that, along with the ifi Zen Stream user manual, is what tripped me up.  If you review this thread, I thought the ifi Zen Stream would only work with coax to the Marantz.  As one forum participant claimed, it does work with usb and it does.  Problem was Marantz and Luxman in its D-07x and D-10x SACD players don't mention streamers at all, just using usb to connect a PC or Mac.  The next issue I had to find by searching forums because ifi does not tell you in its manual that when connecting via coax or usb the Zen Stream automatically switches the outputs based upon the input source selection on the Marantz.  What I thought is you could use one cable at a time, the coax or usb, not keep them both connected.  But on top of that ifi does not tell you that you have to not just change the source connection selector on your DAC (Marantz SACD in this case) but in the ifi online settings at ifi.local.  Once I got that figured out I can now stream both coax and usb.  Again, streaming free Spotify, both say 44.1khz on the Marantz display, but now I understand that is the sample rate, not the streaming rate, which for free Spotify is very low as noted.  I just started to compare sound of coax vs. usb using only one album, Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard or Soft.  Without streaming the hi res 24bit rate version (yet) and comparing it to the cd and Spotify, the sound of coax vs. usb is different.  I have to do a lot more listening to understand how I would describe the differences, but I seemed to think the coax sounded better.  The Billie Eilish recordings are top notch and have been featured as to the expertise and technology they use in mastering in Sound on Sound magazine in several articles.  So it may actually be a good way to compare things, particularly with the Marantz upconverting everything to DSD before outputting the signal. 

I definitely recommend switching over to Qobuz… widely regarded as the best sounding… and which has over 500,000 high resolution albums. Tidal is nearly as good although with a tiny fraction of high resolution albums. I believe you can still get one month free trial. You are unlikely to switch back. I certainly did not switch back to Tidal.