External DAC for Cambridge CXN (V2) and Sony XA 5400 ES

arize84... not sure I am onboard with " a tube preamp with a pronounced sound signature / coloration". If every piece of wire, power cord, tube, etc., produces a noticeable difference I’m not at all sure the LS2BMKII would mask differences in DAC performance because it sure doesn’t mask anything else.... but you do have a point on pricing.
displayname62... thanks for your response, soundstage and imaging are very important to me and presently the stage is much wider than the 16 foot wide room and varies from front and center in a club to first few rows depending on source material, station, original recording and such. Tried an ARC LS 17 SE pre and a LS 27 pre and they both had tiny compressed stages and left faster than they came.to try. Thanks for the info on Modwright although I’m reluctant to make irreversible changes to see if I like the results.

mahler123 Thanks for the info on the Bryston and HDMI. I probably have 30 or 40 SACD recordings and that would be important. I would not be surprised to find the Bryston to outperform the Benchmark, although it is a few years older but it is more than double the money, but again, would have to find a way to try before I buy as too much stuff has left here faster than it came. Maybe a local dealer (if there are any left) would have one that could be tried.

Maybe a local dealer (if there are any left) would have one that could be tried.

I would also love to try the Bryston, but dealers are one of their biggest challenges. I think it might be easier to find someone who owns one nearby to host then to find a dealer honestly, depending on where you live of course. 

On the Modwright, I totally get that. It requires quite a leap of faith. The only reason I'm considering (if I can get the funds together next year) would be because several people who's ears I trust have spoken highly of Modwright gear, and the design seems to be aligned with other gear that's stood out to me. 
I'm a sucker for Class A designs. Both my main amp (tube amp) and my headphone amp are class A. Those designs always seem to connect with me. Secondly, this mod makes the unit a dual power supply DAC. I've noticed DACs that leverage a dual linear power supply generally stand out to me as well, tube or solid state. Not that I'm a DAC expert, but that's a trend I've noticed. 
Then you factor in the fact that I almost exclusively use the CXN for streaming Tidal, Spotify and playing CDs. I personally don't have an SACD need, or even an ultra high res file type for now.  Plus Cambridge is on the early list Tidal Connect, which will make Tidal streaming even easier. 
Lastly, there's the price. I think this is where Modwright kept it really competitive. His gear in general tends to hold value very well. I've already had the CXN for awhile, and those are holding value fairly well too. I figured if I got it and didn't like the change I could sell the CXN and mostly just loose out on the shipping and normal CXN depreciation. At the same price point and general functionality is the Lumin D2 and Auralic Altair G1. I think there is good arguments for all 3 units based on needs/priorities, but if I was going to one of those units I think I'd rather go separates with the streamer and DAC. Because I already have the cxn, the barrier of entry is lower with the Modwright mod.  

In your shoes though, getting something that can take DSD directly from HDMI sounds like a key feature, and I think that's a good consideration. Looking forward to seeing which way you go and your thoughts wherever you land.  

You might consider just having Modwright upgrade your CXN. Supposedly a great performer when modified.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=169517.40
http://www.modwright.com/modifications/cambridge-cxn-v2-tube-modification.php

Whoops, sorry for repeating the above suggestion...

Well..  I've decided (I think) to order the Benchmark DAC 3b this coming week from Benchmark.First shootout will be the Benchmark fed by the Cambridge digitally to my AR preamp via balanced interconnects against the Cambridge on it's analogue cables to my pre.
If that is successful the second shootout will be the Sony XA 5400 ES feeding the Benchmark digitally vs. the Sony on RCA analogue and on the reverse, the Benchmark on RCA vs. the Sony on balanced.
Cables will be Digital Belden 1694A with Canare jacks as that's what Benchmark recommends and sells.  I also have some Digital Straightwire Silver Streak II on the way in for testing.  Balanced cables are Straightwire Virtuoso (one of their level 4 reference cables) and a Straightwire Expressivo level 3 high end audio RCA cable.  I have some others I could try but the Straightwire cables (including Maestro) outperformed everything else I ever tried so that is what it is.  Power cord will be an 3m Audioquest.
I did have some concerns about SACD playback but after considering that situation I listen mostly now via streaming, and while I have a nice 700+ disc collection just don't play CDs very often,  and SACDs perhaps a couple a year now.  Throwing another $1800 at this to cover SACD playback from the Sony HDMI outputs (to a Bryston D/A)  just doesn't make sense to me.  I would expect the next step, if I take it would be to re-digitize by re-recording all my disks in FLAC or WAV on something like a Bluenode Vault 2i.  The downside to that is they say it runs about 20 minutes a CD and WTF, I'm 73 years old this month.  I'm not looking for nearly year long projects.