Tony
Take your time and be strategic with each addition you make to your system. Have a road map in mind. You don’t have many SACDs at present, but a whole lot of CDs, and you like handling physical media.
You mention the desire to explore streaming down the road, and there I can’t argue the choice of going the Bluesound Node route. But all things being equal, if you have a player that is still functional, I’d start with the DAC. A DAC upgrade will have benefits both immediate and in the future. If you think you might get involved big time with SACDs, then I do recommend that the new DAC be DSD capable; otherwise don’t sweat DSD capability. I happen to have a Chord Qutest and absolutely love it, but there are a whole host of good DACs to be had out there. If you should ever get into SACD big time, then something like the D.BOB (digital breakout box) would be something that I’d recommend adding to your road map.
Take your time and be strategic with each addition you make to your system. Have a road map in mind. You don’t have many SACDs at present, but a whole lot of CDs, and you like handling physical media.
You mention the desire to explore streaming down the road, and there I can’t argue the choice of going the Bluesound Node route. But all things being equal, if you have a player that is still functional, I’d start with the DAC. A DAC upgrade will have benefits both immediate and in the future. If you think you might get involved big time with SACDs, then I do recommend that the new DAC be DSD capable; otherwise don’t sweat DSD capability. I happen to have a Chord Qutest and absolutely love it, but there are a whole host of good DACs to be had out there. If you should ever get into SACD big time, then something like the D.BOB (digital breakout box) would be something that I’d recommend adding to your road map.