can i get a significant dac upgrade over my Lumin d2 for 2k?

Easy , check out all the great reviews of the Denafrips Pontus-2  

a great R2R dac that does everything well , even at $3k don’t know anything that is 

good in all areas , to get a Big step up. The Denafrips Terminator2  is 

like going Mercedes’ C class to S class !

Bluesound NODE with Teddy  Pardo LPS to Gustard X26 PRO via DH Labs silversonic USB connection. Sweet!

For those of you saying you need to spend more to get a meaningful improvement I’d encourage you to read the review of the Gustard R26 on soundnews.net. The thing is built to a very high standard from the power supplies to the resistor ladder, and the results according to the review are not far off the Terminator +. Sometimes the audio Gods give us poor folk a true gift, and this sure looks like one of them to me.

Gustard now doing the R2R thing because it is the talked about thing for analogue lovers. Smart of them. However the X26 pro is an absolutely thing of beauty sound wise, better than the Aries 2 I owned.

I ordered the Gustard R26 last night. I have been reading looking snd driving my self nuts for more than a year. I came down to Holo Spring, Denafrips Pontus, Gustard x26 pro, Sokris, and the I heard about Gustard doing r2r discrete. In my search the first eliminator was no balanced xlr. This removed some very well like tube dac’s. Tubes were not a big deal as my pre is a tube unit. Check the net nightly for reviews on the R26 and it finally showed up last week. That was all in needed to end my search. I also feel in this hobby spending more money does not always result in the equal amount of improvement. To spend 100 times more for only a 20% improvement does not add up for me. If the R26 holds up to 3/4 of the review I will be a happy camper. Only hope the new shut down in china does not cause me to be sitting here waiting until Christmas for it to come.