Would a stand alone dac help, and how much?


 I’ve asked this question before, but I wanna see what kind of answer I get now. I have a Sonos connect to stream directly to Bryston  equipment. I use the dac  in the Sonos, and plug analog into the Bryston  preamp. Would it be better to buy a stand alone dac to put between the Sonos connect and the preamp? 

 Someone before said I should just dump the Sonos and get a blue sound node 2i, no stand alone dac.   I haven’t tried that, however I do like the interface that the sonos provides, I just don’t think the dac inside of the Sonos connect is very good. I’m not satisfied with the sq.  All the equipment is Bryson with the exception of aerial model six speakers and an older CD player with a optical out, which I could plug into a new dac. Any thoughts guys? Or girls? I appreciate any information, I am not very informed on streaming equipment Or formats or anything like that. I simply stream from Pandora, Spotify, etc.  Yes, I need to upgrade the service.  Also, what brands do you recommend?  I can spend up to $1500.  Thanks!
crossfree
You could get a TEAC NT-505 for a little over your budget and it would be more in line with what you have in the rest of your system.  It's a streamer and DAC that will outclass the Node 2i.
If you want to stay in the Sonos ecosystem I’d take a look at replacing your Connect with the modified version from Wyred 4 Sound. Add a decent external DAC and you’re golden. 
@crn3371 is spot on. That’s the only way to get decent sound out of Connect. If you’re looking to sign up with Tidal or Qobuz, then $550 (Wyrd 4 Sound upgrade) is best spent towards another streamer other than Node 2i. Don’t think you will hear day n night improvement if you go analog out from Node 2i to Bryson preamp.

IMO, Node 2i really shines when paired with an external DAC like Ayre Codex or similar.

PS: I own both Connect and Vault 2.