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

@traubr 

Well I guess I didn’t read your original post throughly. 😁

I mean you have new Focal Kanta 2 speakers. Could it be they need to still break in?  Those seem like very nice speakers!
 

I just bought some Polk R200AE Anniversary Edition of the Reserve 200. So far I am impressed. But you have quite a bit more invested in your system. You should be able to enjoy it but this hobby is a never ending quest for sure.

Best of luck too you. 

 

Your Gustard Dac is pretty good. Yes you could get a "wow" factor increase, but you would need to spend a lot - a Tambaqui, a Playback deisgn or a Meitner. Is it wort it if you are primarily listening to Home Theatre? Not in my opinion.

"Save your money and leave things alone! Your streamer and DAC are fine! Spending more is a sideways move!" As always, the comments from Jasonbourne are half truths and quite silly.
He is only correct that in order to get a wow factor increase, you need to spend a lot.

The marantz is the weak link in your system. I’m guessing that your room is also going to be a weak link. There is an easy fix and I’m surprised that a dealer with 40 years experience didn’t state this (actually I’m not because they mostly want to sell you something). 
 

If you truly want a quality audio system within a home theater setup, then look at hundreds of audiophile products (preamp, or integrated amp) that provides a home theater bypass input so you get the best of both worlds. You can use your av processor to provide sound to your surround speakers and center channel and your quality audio system (2 channel) will provide the sound from the main speakers. When you want to listen to 2 channel, you leave your av processor off. I’ve done this in my home theater system a couple decades ago. You can spend thousands or tens/hundreds of thousands of $$$ on your 2 channel gear depending on what you want.

Btw: you don’t need a streamer. Some of the better dacs have streamer capabilities built in, all you need is Roon or audirvana. 
 

1 more thing: never buy those cheap power line adapters. Install a quality mesh network instead, your wifi/extended wired coverage will be so much better.