Streaming upgrade from Cambridge Audio cxn v2

I'm surprised that many of you are suggesting an expensive streamer rather than a cheap streamer and an expensive dac: if the dac has a reasonable sized buffer, shouldn't it make up for the weakness in the streamer?

There’s still the issue of noise, parts quality, etc. There are many reasons why a $3k streamer can sound a lot better than a $1k streamer (same with DACs), and with most things in audio the chain is only a strong as the weakest link. Balance is key, which is why I recommended a streamer and DAC above that were priced in the same ballpark. A streaming setup in particular can quickly expose where you cut costs, so again, balance is key. Just my $0.02 FWIW.

I’d hop on this Innuos Pulse that is excellent and has a small footprint…
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650067299-innuos-pulse-streamer-silver/

This Musician Aquarius is a great DAC and a great relative value and also small footprint…

https://aoshida-audio.com/products/musician-aquarius

Here’s a good review fyi…

https://soundnews.net/sources/dacs/musician-aquarius-r-2r-dac-review/

I have little doubt this mini combo would be a substantial improvement in every way over your Cambridge, and you could add the Musician Leo or Phoenix DDC later and get a significant performance bump by using the i2S input (see review). I did this with my Musician Pegasus and the improvement was not small. Just something to consider, and best of luck.