All I know is the vinyl side of my system sounds clear, clean, precise, dynamic, great soundstage and separation… glorious. I would put my system up against any like priced system.
The digital side, good soundstage, dynamic but not as clear clean or precise. Not bad, but certainly not near the sound quality of vinyl. I would NOT put my system up against any like priced systems
That leaves the DAC and/or the streamer as the problem. New DAC arrives today, so we shall see.
As I said at the beginning, I am a vinyl guy. I play digital as a convenience, while that may increase with the improvements, I am not willing to spend more on the digital side vs analog. I don’t need digital to be glorious, just very good.
So, on a like for like purchase, my Rega Aris and Qutest are very equal. On the streamer side, I am thinking something like Auralic Aries G1.1. vs my 1Xpression/ Hana ML. Thanks