Expensive Dac to keep or cheaper and change overtime

@charles1dad  +1 "the merits and longevity of really well designed, engineered and implemented DACs stand the test of time easily. Things do improve and change over time but I believe this is often greatly overstated."

Upgrade from an A22?😕  

I guess I'm in a different level of "Audiophile".

@grahams248 One word of caution with PSAudio DACsis its I2S pinouts are not configurable which means to play DSD layer of SACDs, you have to have PSAudio’s transport. There are DSD capable DACs with I2S (over HDMI, over RJ45 etc) that are configurable so that one has more flexibility with brands of SACD transports.

Curious, how do you stream Amazon Music (HD?) ? I just found a super inexpensive streamer that lets me to use native Amazon Music app on tablet/phone to stream to it in the track’s given native resolution (up to 24 bit/196khz). Other option I have is to use HEOS app on Marantz/Denon but it's usability is a bit rough especially compared to Amazon  Music app itself. Thx.

@lwin 

Speculation? Hardly,

have I heard it ? Yes … nobody’s claiming that it’s not a good DAC,,

in a bakeoff against a dcS (model escapes me for the moment …) and the BRYSTON BDA3, all three were played in a $50k system, …my buddy and I thought all three were great . 

The point: there wasn’t a noticeable difference for us  between them .  Other than price. If I had to give a forced nod to guess at the best ( it would  be the dcS . The BRYSTON digital player source feeding it and the high-end amp , speakers, and cables together in system, seemed to be a big positive influencer and not just  the dac alone.

my only point is that most digital music is mastered  at 24/192 and below with a largest at even lower rez, a super rez capability is fine nice-to-have but not any driving differentiator for many for now,…

my take: until the future recordings get there in the unknown future, I’ll stick with high build superiority at a more competitive price for the tried and true for now. ..

As always with Audiophile, lots of variables that interact. My Bluesound Node 2i was a noticeable upgrade to my Peachtree Nova 300 and my Yamaha RX-A1070 internal dacs, but not better than the internal dac of my Arcam AVR30 or Anthem STR Integrated. I would say it is not far behind my MiniDSP SHD dac.  My SMSL M400 was a big improvement to the Node 2i. I then upgraded to the PSAudio DirectStream.  That was a slight improvement to the M400, but it was highly dependent on the rest of the system I had it married to. I would rank those two about equal in sound quality.  Customer service from PSAudio is stellar however. I had issues with my Bridge 2 and sent it in. Even though I bought the DAC used, they repaired the bridge for free on warranty, including return shipping. One thing lacking from the DirectStream and M400 was a headphone output, so last year I purchased a used Matrix Audio Element X. It is somewhat better acoustically than the DirectStream and the M400. It also has better capability as far as handling higher res and different data, and it is "fully" Roon ready. I have re-arranged components endlessly in different rooms, and in general, the amount I paid for the Directstream and MA Element were high prices for a small improvement to the M400, as far a sound capability. Both can get an input directly via my network, which M400 can not, so I keep the M400 in the system where I can feed it directly from my Roon Nucleus USB.  In the end, my experience is that you get what you pay for, depending on the features you need, and you pay increasingly high prices for ever smaller increases in sound quality. That said, I read about newer sub-$2,000 dacs that have great sound, and before long I will purchase some and see for myself.  My experience with the SMSL M400 proves to me that if you can live with some reduced features, you can get some very good sound at cheaper prices.  I guess a big variable is how long you can stick with one unit without getting the upgrade bug bite. ( I write with a big smile!)