First off, Cambridge makes good sounding products. They have kept up with latest tech and continue to evolve. Wish I can say the same for Ayre. QX8 is now dated. Since its release in 2019, there hasn’t been much advancement or revision. If your dealer is recommending QX8, can you get a no obligation in-home audition?
IME, another one box streamer/DAC would not be a giant leap forward if that’s what you are after. It may sound different or gives you some improvement. If you really want to improve your digital streaming plus DAC performance over CXN, you should look into separates.
Check out Innuous or Aurender (streamer only) options and external DAC…plenty of options to choose from. At the end of the day, only a in-home will help you make the decision which DAC and Streamer worth upgrading to around $6K or more.
UI is an important part of the experience when choosing streamer. Are you a ROON user? Both Innuos and Aurender have proprietary apps that are optimized for higher fidelity unlike ROON.