Is low cost DAC worth it?

Install USB Audio Player Pro on your phone and connect via usb to the DAC.

Absolutely not!  I’ve done that and it sucks.  When I added a relatively cheap iFi Zen Stream my streaming performance improved exponentially.  Even a decent streamer makes all the difference. 

Have to disagree soix.  I did just that using my phone as a streamer into an Ares II.  It sounded almost as good as using a Node to stream in the same setup.  Never tried the Zen but can't imagine things changing that much.  But maybe they could. Obviously they did for you. BTW had the blessing of using my phone from Alvin who told me about the idea and said he's done the same thing before I even tried it.

I have found that you save a bundle of money, depending upon how serious you are about audio, to spend more, and buy less. This is a diminishing returns hobby. The more you spend, the less you get. There are a lot of items that you would have to spend double your money or more to better. Take a JC5 amp. It's not a Boulder, but for us peasants, it is. I have not heard this, but Steve Hoffman highly recommends it, and while that's not everything, it's something. Check out his review. It's slightly over budget, but it sounds like you'll be able to live with it for years. You may later want to upgrade to a Lampizator DAC, BUT you'll still be able to use this to feed it. Buy less, save more. The voice of one who has spent a ton before learning this, save and spend less!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vniWmD-HAoU

Have to disagree soix.  I did just that using my phone as a streamer into an Ares II.  It sounded almost as good as using a Node to stream in the same setup.  Never tried the Zen but can't imagine things changing that much.  But maybe they could.

@marco1 I started using an Apple Camera Adapter into my DAC and was happy.  Then, because the Apple CA looked like crap I tried this, which was a huge upgrade in sound quality over the Apple crap cable…

https://www.lavricables.com/cables/reference-silver-lightning-interconnect-cable-for-oppo-ha-2-centrance-mini-m8/

Then I got an iFi Zen Stream that was a huge upgrade over the LavriCable.  Get a good streamer and you’ll be greatly rewarded.  That’s my experience anyway. 

OP,

Pretty soon you are going to hook up a decent streamer and DAC and hear why they are important. However if you don’t invest some money in both it will sound like a waste of money. So far you have been splashing around in the kiddy pool.