Which DACs are known to be sweet/rich/relaxed?

I have the Scala Utopia, which, offers somewhat similar challenges as the Stella Utopia (albeit on a smaller scale). It sounds harsh and revealing with some equipment.

After a lot of experimentation, I’ve settled onto this for musicality:

1. A basic $5k R2R DAC (Holo May)

2. (Very important) a musical, euphonic preamp (I’ve had McIntosh tube preamps before but nothing beats my current Hegel P30. Feels like I am using tubes but with none of that noise / distortion at higher volumes)

3. (Very important) ‘warm cables’. I moved from silver-based power cables to copper based ones (AQ Hurricane)

4. Hegel H30 amp to match my preamp

Very musical, with ‘meat on the bones’ type presentation.

I have a Roon Nucleus Plus, with an Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty DAC, Pakedge switch, top end shunyata ethernet cables, Audioquest power cables, JPS Labs speaker cables, Revel Salon 2 speakers, powered by an Hegel H390 integrated and an Audioquest Niagra 3000 line conditioner/ surge protector.  The sound quality I'm getting via #1, Qobuz, Tidal and from my internal hard drive is extraordinary!!!  But, the greatest and most crucial contributor to the stunning sound quality I'm getting out of my system come from my Reference level Ayre Acoustics DAC.  All associated equipment that makes up a top notch streaming system in order to achieve the best sound must be...."Top Notch."    Roon Nucleus  included.  No more cd's or vinyl for me.  Just me and my lovely iPad.  Ain't life grand!!!    

I forgot to mention that my Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty DAC is a streaming DAC.  I use the DAC as a  streamer  My DAC along with my Roon Nucleus Plus renders amazing and marvelous results.  I am overwhelmingly pleased with this combination.  Before opting for the Roon Nucleus Plus, I went through an extensive auditioning process that included most of the high end brands servers, streamers, in various combos there of.  After hearing the Roon and a stand alone DAC in a system at one of my High End Audio dealers, and after being absolutely floored by what I heard out of that system, base on that, I decided to configure my system in the same manner.  So, the Roon was the right solution for me and what I desired to accomplish in my own system and I've been very, very happy with the results.  Well, to each his own.  So glad I was able to find my little slice of audio heaven.  Happy listening.         

+1 @chayro 

I used to think an awesome stereo would make everything sound...awesome. Wasn't the case for me, sometimes the music just isn't that good and no amount of lipstick is going to change that pig. 

How are you connecting the Roon to your dac, hdmi or usb?

@treynolds155 - I just spin CD’s with a transport. I’m sure streaming is fine, but I don’t feel like dealing with it.  I think that many people are so influenced by what they read that they don’t want to admit to themselves what they really like to actually listen to. All these complaints of harshness are caused by people chasing detail, which can become very tiresome when you want to listen long term. Don’t buy a Ferrari when you really want a Bentley.