New Streamer, DAC or Let it Be


Hello.  I am at a crossroads and interested in soliciting suggestions on a streamer and/or DAC upgrade using your collective experience.  My focus is actually home theatre, with perhaps 20% of the time devoted to music.  The space is my wife's office by day, my home theatre/ listening room by night, and furniture placement, windows, doors, etc. cannot be moved; it is what it is. 

Equipment is a Marantz AV8805A processor, Parasound A51 amp and new Focal Kanta 2 speakers.  My streamer is a Bluesound Node with upgraded internal power supply and external LPS, and Gustard U18 DDC feeding a Gustard X26 PRO DAC with SR purple fuse.  The Node upgrades made a very positive difference, and addition of the Gustard U18 was a noticeable and very welcome upgrade as well.  My frame of reference/ comparison are CDs from a modest collection played on an Oppo BD103, fed to the Marantz via HDMI (I tried Toslink and Coax but HDMI to the Marantz sounded best).  I stream a variety of music using Qobuz and the Bluesound app on my phone.  The app is OK but despite a trumpeted recent upgrade, Bluesound has not yet resolved something as simple as the ability to organize Favorites by Artist or Album; they appear in the reverse order added, which is nuts.  The various digital upgrades have made streaming sound just about as good as the CD.  Here’s the dilemma.

I live vicariously through your experience with the enormous breadth of quality digital equipment out there.  I am not necessarily looking to throw money at something I do infrequently, yet am driven by the unknown: will an upgrade provide added pleasure and justify enhancements equal to the expense for the limited time I listen to music?  Obviously, a therapist could help, but I trust many of you have been down this road and can offer insight.  My questions are, would a streamer upgrade alone take me to the next level?  Is a DAC upgrade instead the better path?  Or, am I chasing unicorns, and is my humble setup good enough, to simply let it be?  I learned never to say never, but the likelihood of an investment now and then further upgrades down the road is unlikely, as the wife has zero patience and appreciation for all this.  As to existing equipment, the Marantz and Parasound aren’t going anywhere, and I am very happy with the Kantas.  Any purchase will likely be via the used market, to mitigate costs.  My budget is in the $3K range (preferably less, usually more), which is what I was looking at for a used/ open box Aurender N150.  I am by no means limiting myself to just that brand or model streamer, and have not scratched the surface on a DAC, should that happen.

Thanks for your time and any experience/ suggestions you might share.

traubr

12many, in the quest for WOW, a separate preamp is fraught with issues, not least of which is where to put it.  My equipment "rack" runneth over now, and the sucker just wouldn't fit.  Considering space, a separate two channel audio path and a sound quality upgrade, a combo preamp/ DAC seems a viable option.  Or, upgrading one of the components (streamer or DAC).  Or, the easiest option of all, doing nothing, as JBourne suggests.  Hmmm...

Dougsat, there is, in fact, another room, although the layout is far from ideal.    It has my original AVR in there with a good set of speakers, running "background" music through Heos. I also have a modest amplifier not currently in use that could be inserted.  I prefer to pipe music through my new speakers and higher quality setup in the prime space, but am curious what you might suggest in the way of a $3K musical system.

The Eversolo A8 is a server, streamer ,and true R2R preamp 

I for under $2k delivered with hand picked Quality parts and top AKM 4499EX dac

latest Xmos ,Dual Femto clocks Independent Linear power supply .

perrotta consultants give good pricing as well as customer service upgrade the digital and power cords, instant upgrades look at the parts quality ,it does count

250 hours on break8n.just check out the reviews for all you get for your $$ 

and nice app I have no problem following and SS drive installs in 2 minutes.

6 inch touch screen and6 filters,and DSP if you are daring ,it’s at least worth investigating. My wife loves it ,after I set it up.

 

As music is lesser in my world, I'm not sure whether replacing the Marantz or running another stereo preamp side by side in my system makes sense.

Yeah, I totally get that and was just throwing it out there.  Here’s what I’d try if I was you because if it doesn’t make a big improvement you can just sell it for little/no loss.  Also, you can load any CDs you have into it and never spin a silver disc ever again.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisb88ej-innuos-zen-mk3-music-servers-docks