I'm going to say "Nay," only because I know how good the Rega Apollo is as a stand alone player. But I will note that when my Apollo was new I didn't think it was all it was cracked up to be, and in fact, I didn't think it was much of an improvement over my old Rega Planet, which I've long since sold.
It took a good 3 to 4 months of break in before I began to hear the Apollo at its best. At first I used it as a transport for my Monarchy M24 DAC, which I ran directly from its DAC outputs using premium Siemens E88CC gold-pin tubes. But after extended break-in the comparison of the Apollo to the Apollo/M24 combination became a closer contest.
The Apollo stand-alone seemed to have deeper, more articulate bass, perhaps slightly better dynamics, and greater transient speed/clarity. Fast transients like sharp thwacks on a guitar, or sharply plucked strings sounded cleaner and faster.
Then again, on some recordings, the slightly plumper midbass of the M24 was an asset as was its tendency to smooth the music out a bit. The differences were not as huge as many would tend to argue, and my preference for one over the other would hinge on the quality of the recording and the particular instruments contained therein.
I recall getting more dynamic punch and tautness out of the drum kit on a particular Jack Johnson CD, and cleaner, faster guitar work from Tim Reynold's guitar on the solo Apollo. That said, on many vocal recordings and those with brass instruments I preferred the sound of the Apollo/M24 combo. The M24 helped to flesh out brass like the trombone and bass sax.
Ultimately, I ended up selling the M24 and using the Apollo solo. Later, down the road I bought a better tube preamp and although the system sounds just a hair's breadth slower than when using my solid-state passive buffered preamp, I prefer the tube unit's overall presentation. It seems to have a more dimensional soundstage and maintains an excellent sense of dynamic contrasts. It also sounds smoother in the upper-midrange/lower treble area.
If you use other types of source components like a tuner or turntable it may make more sense to upgrade your preamp rather than upgrading to an outboard DAC. This approach worked well for me. Plus you won't need to buy an expensive digital cable and another power cord not to mention finding extra shelf space to accommodate the DAC and possibly a related outboard power supply...
