A stupid question for which there's no sensible answer.

1) the room
2) system synergy. 3) good quality components. Buy the best sounding components you can afford.

I may have missed it, but I don’t think anyone has mentioned what I would consider the easiest, cheapest thing OP should do: try Roon or Audirvana.  Running a signal direct from a Mac to a DAC means the Mac’s internal audio "enhancers" are mucking with the output before it leaves the computer chassis.  It’s a well-known issue.  Audirvana, Roon, and other applications bypass this and give you a proper signal for your DAC, not some "lowest common denominator" signal designed for all possible headphones, devices, etc.  Using the Mac’s USB output does not avoid this.  Sign up for a free trial run; it will sound like you got a new DAC.  (Paul McGowan of PS Audio has a few videos on this; the library of those is on the PS Audio website.  But the gist is: see above).  
Lots of other good ideas here as well.  But me thinks your DAC is getting a garbage feed.  I’d start there.  And, of the software options, I really like Roon.  If you doubt the premise, try a CD from a decent CD player/transport, run through the DAC, and compare the same track to a 16/44 file from your Mac to the same DAC.  If I’m right, the CD will crush the file.  If I’m wrong, they will sound more or less the same.  I’ve been wrong before ... Just don’t use your Mac as the CD player in this experiment! 
Disclosure statement: No affiliations with any audio companies, dealers, distributors, PC manufacturers, magazines, influencers, YouTubers, TikTok-ers, software companies, or labels.  Just a hopeless gearhead who can’t sleep. 

My experience in conceiving and installing ~50 hifi systems leads me to approach your question as follows:
#1 get the magic triangle right: Room-Speakers-Amp. There is no such a thing as a great amp or amazing speakers. But there is definitely great amp-speakers combinations that fit best in certain size/shape of rooms (Bakoon Amp13R with Sound|Kaos Vox3A, Lumin M1 with Kef LS50, First Watt SIT3 with widebanders such as Cube Nenuphars, Crayon CIA-1T with Boenicke W5, Ypsilon Phaethon with Lawrence Audio Double Bass)
#2 speakers positioning v listening position, vibration control, minor room treatment
#3 DAC/source
#4 Power treatment (this is household dependent, it goes from fundamental to barely no impact)
#5 Pre-amp (I use VRossi L2se but as good as it is it only adds the last 10% of pleasure + tube rolling options)
#6 Cables upgrade etc (provided that in the first place you used good ones)
#7 Exotic audio stuff that keep the fun going 😁(reclockers, hermoltz generators, LessLoss speaker firewalls, ...). Two more thoughts:
1. Having a proper active sub and a high-pass filter to drive the main speakers is the upgrade of a lifetime. This alone merits a detailed post.
2. Best to plan #1/2/3 ahead of time to ensure you achieve adequate system balance (avoid over-investing on a top-notch DAC like the Mola Mola Tambaqui R2R with a pair of Kef LS50 down the line) and system ‘character’ (this is personal but you’ll see with experience what kind of sound gets you to sing & dance vs merely checking if the drum kick goes down to 28hz or not 😱). Above all enjoy listening to the music you love and share your passion with friends & family!

Goodness WillieWonky, you must surely have your tongue in both cheeks.

Possibly in order to sell his turntable which at that time was his only product, Ivor Tiefenbrun used to say the source was crucial - garbage in, garbage out.  Indeed, since he made more money out of the TTs that Linn made themselves (unlike their arms and cartridges made in Japan), he said the TT is the most crucial.

Not sure I go with Ivor there, but there must surely be truth in this source doctrine since a poor music signal can never be corrected by the down-line components.  Indeed the errors will be amplified and rendered truthfully in all their ugliness by the best amplifiers and speakers.

But all the posts above ignore one very big element - component matching.  It is essential to see the system as holistic.  It's no good buying a string of top-price, well-reviewed pieces and just assuming they will work well together.

Nice relevant article on “setup”:

https://news.google.com/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LndoYXRoaWZpLmNvbS9hZHZpY2UvdGhpbmdzLXRoYXQtbWF...