IS THE WEISS 204 A SUBSTANIAL UPGRADE FRON THE CHORD QUTEST

@kjl1065 I owned the following DACs after the Qutest:

Bryston BDA3, Benchmark DAC3 HGC, PS Audio DSD MkI, Marantz SA10 SACD Player/DAC, Chord Hugo TT2, Bricasti M3. 
 

All except Marantz (not my cup of tea at all) and Bryston (different but not better) are an improvement over the Qutest. My favorite is the Bricasti and it can be had used way under your price range if you are patient and keep an eye on the used market. I’d say my second favorite would be PS Audio (slightly noisy though but very engaging sound) and Hugo TT2. As I stated earlier the TT2 like the Qutest uses SMPS and the variation in sound quality depends on how clean your power is throughout the day. Benchmark is a good DAC as well but to me it sounds slightly cooler and dryer than the rest - you can do better within your budget. 

If you like full sounding and if your system is on the bright side the Marantz SA 10 is an exceptional performer on my system. The secret use the balance ic and good pc and ic it will reward you.Music direct discount them. Talking about Weiss Dac ? Check Steve Huff reviews on Weiss. Audio Mirror has listed here on Agon , they DAc V is on sale.

Check schiit yagdrassil Dac they have a 15 day return policy. This is a exceptional dac.

Following.

I can’t decide wether to buy a DDC to go with my Pontus ll or get a different DAC.

While I can’t answer your exact Question, I can say I am happy with the Weiss I have.  After going then the rabbit hole of dacs, I found a mention of Weiss in a thread.  I did some research and liked the dna of the Weiss.  I did purchase the updated 2024 version of the Weiss dac 501 mk2.