Mark Levinson 30.5 DAC vs. current DACs?

I owned a ML 390S CD processor for over 20 years.  Fine  piece of equipment with very good sound and very reliable except for the erratic drawer function of the transport.
I am sure its still quite viable in today's market at more reasonable pricing.

However, in switching last year to streaming I replaced it with an Ayre QX-5 Twenty DAC and it was a game changer.  No single piece of equipment has changed the character of my system in many years of upgrading methodically.

I still think that era of ML digital equipment was quite good but the modern DAC technology is just more detailed, open and more analog like.

My only reservation about the older Levinson equipment is its age and cost to repair when needed.

Of course, the Qx-5 is expensive ( I picked up a lightly used one) and it did force ( LOL) me to also buy a KX-5 twenty preamp.  Never ends.

emtrey
thanks. I appreciate your personal assessment and opinion. 

Stereophile just tested a Chord M Scaler and in the process tried it with the ML 30.6 DAC. As part of that they talked about how that DAC has stood the test of time and how the M Scaler helped modernize it.
So you might want to check out that review:https://www.stereophile.com/content/chord-electronics-hugo-m-scaler-upsampling-digital-processor

@creativepart: Interesting read! It seems that the upsampling definitely improves the sonic performance of the 20.6. So perhaps I should look into this further.
Thanks for sharing this with me.

Intrigued to have just come upon this thread.
I currently run a 30.5/31.5 (all units recapped by Levinson authorized facility in Austin, TX)
Just bought a Berkeley Ref, so will have a direct  comparison capability between previous SOTA and one of the top tier DACs of this era.
More to follow as the next week evolves...