Best significant upgrade? Dac? Preamp?

@c_s Your comments echo my experiences after moving to a Schiit Gungnir Multibit DAC. I also found that moving from a MacMini as music server to a dedicated audio streamer/renderer (in my case Sonore microRendu) adds another big improvement.

Digital audio is much closer to top analog than ever IMHO. These changes have taken me from 90%/10% analog listening a few years ago to more like 60%/40% now. I can finally listen to digital and not be reminded that I am listening to digital. That is a big breakthrough for me. Cheers,
Spencer

I switched over to analog for my critical listening about a year ago, so I'm satisfied with the DAC in my Classe Sigma SSP for my casual (i.e., multitasking) digital listening. But were I looking to upgrade the digital side of my system today I'd seriously look at products that support MQA.  As I'm not looking to upgrade that side, I haven't taken the time to verify the "game changer" claims I've read in many reviews of MQA and supporting DACs, but I'd certainly look into it.

First of all the emotion is inside the music. You need to create an audio set that reveals all the emotion of the music.

Emotion is being created by diversity in the middle frequencies. And diversity in dynamics and volume.

When you use a dac with tubes you will not get more emotion out of the music.

Because a tube colours the ’real’ sound.

These days most dacs use USB. When you talk to the people who developed the dacs many will say; USB is not ideal for audio.

And you know why? You loose dynamics and you will loose diversity in the middle freq. Here you find the most important part to create emotion by us human beings.

When we audition a dac you often hear that the middle frequencies almost have the same kind of sound. Like there is almost no diversity in sound.

This is why techinacal people try to find a much better solution to create a better transport of 0/1 with a dac. But this time with more diversity in the middle frequencies.

When I explain my story about emotion to my clients and I give a shootout between a Lumin and a separate dac people directly choose for the Lumin. And it is even clear why the separate dac plays music with less emotion.

I listen for about 5-6 hours to new music each week. I buy for about 250 dollar new music each month. I buy 44.1 till 192 khz 24 bit and also DSD.

The format had influence on the recording, but still how the recording is done and with what kind of equipment is still more importan than the format.

That is why a new format like MQA wil not make music that much better. Because an average recording will sound average on any format.

Each person will always choose for the most involving and emotional sound. And that is why I would advice a networkplayer with an inbuild dac and not a separate one. Because it had a more complete and involving sound.