How to get into high end digital? (Feeding a DAC)

What is the budget?  There is a 2K price differential between the Topping and and Yggdrasil.
  Transports make a difference—they don’t all sound the same—but the DAC is more important.  If the system as a whole is low on resolution, then the NAK CD tray, if it has a digital out, can suffice.  Same with cables-one step above standard interconnects is probably all that is required before diminishing returns sets in.
  If otoh, the system can detect subtle differences between components, get back to us with a budget

OP

You sound stressed.  Relax.  Digital is easy.  Get a decent CDP or transport, a cable that is at least one step above Radio Shack, plug into a DAC or else just use the DAC in the CDP, sit back and enjoy music.  Add a streamer later if you want, or else just use a computer for that (presumably you own one of those already).
  It would help if you told what your budget is.  You are all over the place.  I don’t want to recommend an $80K digital set up if your budget is 8 cents

The OP finally gave us a budget—apparently up to 10K—after multiple requests to do so in the past week.  He wants his music “not to sound like it came from a CD player”.  He has a tt from Audio Research.  I have no idea what that costs, but I haven’t seen AR equipment at WalMart recently.  He is looking at DACs—the most important determinant of digital sound—that range from 8% to 25% of his total budget, and probably less than his tt.  He has now decided that an AVR will meet his needs.    IMO he should keep buying lps from Barnes and Noble that cost $50 each and usually are digital files that have been embedded in a slab of petroleum.
  Although I feel like this is an exercise in futility, I will share what I do. I have a DAC3 from Bryston.  I use a Melco N100 as a NAS/Player.  I rip my CDs with a Melco 100 ripper/disc transport.  The music sounds the same to me whether played from the transport or the N100.  It is simply the best sound that I have ever had, much more detailed and open than using my Oppo 105 or a Sony 5100 as a transport into the same DAC.  The Melco/DAC combo can probably be had for 6K.  Another $5 for a decent app controls the whole thing from a phone or tablet and allows Tidal/Qobuz integration and Internet Radio.
  All that ask from the OP is that before he issues some proclamation on the merits of digital vs analog is that he not compare apples to oranges.  Don’t compare your Neiman 
Marcus analog rig to a Costco digital setup.  Otherwise, good luck