I think it's difficult to get digital to sound as full as analog. I don't know what your budget would be, but the Qutest running off a battery is pretty satisfying. I've also got a Denafrips Pontus II coming which is supposed to be pretty smooth in sound. A Denafrips Ares II was pretty smooth but wasn't detailed enough to sound engaging to me.
Perhaps one way to look at digital is the value of streaming. You have thousands of music recordings available at your fingertips. That's been really fulfilling to me to hear new music that I learn about, but would otherwise might never actually get to hear.
A couple of suggestions for better digital sound quality. I would do all of these before getting a new DAC as all of these created a noticeable improvement even when using the Denafrips Ares II DAC.
Perhaps one way to look at digital is the value of streaming. You have thousands of music recordings available at your fingertips. That's been really fulfilling to me to hear new music that I learn about, but would otherwise might never actually get to hear.
A couple of suggestions for better digital sound quality. I would do all of these before getting a new DAC as all of these created a noticeable improvement even when using the Denafrips Ares II DAC.
- Run your Pro-ject streamer via an Ethernet cable. Turn off Wi-Fi and HDMI. This makes a HUGE difference in sound quality. If your Ethernet port is too far away, creating an Ethernet access port with a TP-Link Wi-Fi extender worked well for me.
- A Supra Cat 8 cable sounds better than a generic AmazonBasics Cat 6 cable.
- Adding an Audioquest Jitterbug makes the Pro-ject streamer sound smoother, clearer, and fuller.
- The smoothest USB cable I found was a Phasure Lush 1 (compared to Shunyata Venom, Pangea Premier SE, Belkin Gold & a generic USB cable that came with an HP printer)