Best DAC / Budget


I think this is a gain issue between my analog and digital sides - but I just don't know enough
I hit a wall with the digital side yesterday
I generally listen on the lower side of listening levels
Yesterday I came home and decided to see what this rig could do and put it through it's paces on both the analog and digital side.
I'm playing vinyl on a Nottingham 294 space deck with a 12" tone arm and a Lyra Delos cart - through a EAR 843 tube phono stage - line input on a Rogue Cronus Mark I - KT120 tubes - bypassing the Rogue phono stage.  It sounds just completely glorious. I'm very happy with it.
Digital is a different problem. I've always understood this gear was meant as place holders - they got the ball rolling.
I'm streaming from Tidal, through a Pro-Ject Stream Box Ultra 2 (ethernet cat 6 hard wired to a router), through  a gifted Schitt Mano 2 DAC.

The Problem:
Analog completely surpasses the digital in every way
Digital - turning up the volume (to very high levels) only seems to result in filling in the low register and not actually increasing the volume.
I'm fully aware I am comparing a DAC to a Deck which costs many times more.

Looking for recommendations for a separate stand alone DAC which complements the analog side and for an idea of budget.
Thanks everyone







smaarch1
Many have commented that Denafrips DACs have a more dense and analog sound.  I suppose it all depends what kind of sound you want.
I think it's difficult to get digital to sound as full as analog. I don't know what your budget would be, but the Qutest running off a battery is pretty satisfying. I've also got a Denafrips Pontus II coming which is supposed to be pretty smooth in sound. A Denafrips Ares II was pretty smooth but wasn't detailed enough to sound engaging to me.

Perhaps one way to look at digital is the value of streaming. You have thousands of music recordings available at your fingertips. That's been really fulfilling to me to hear new music that I learn about, but would otherwise might never actually get to hear.

A couple of suggestions for better digital sound quality.  I would do all of these before getting a new DAC as all of these created a noticeable improvement even when using the Denafrips Ares II DAC.
  1. Run your Pro-ject streamer via an Ethernet cable. Turn off Wi-Fi and HDMI. This makes a HUGE difference in sound quality. If your Ethernet port is too far away, creating an Ethernet access port with a TP-Link Wi-Fi extender worked well for me. 
  2. A Supra Cat 8 cable sounds better than a generic AmazonBasics Cat 6 cable. 
  3. Adding an Audioquest Jitterbug makes the Pro-ject streamer sound smoother, clearer, and fuller. 
  4. The smoothest USB cable I found was a Phasure Lush 1 (compared to Shunyata Venom, Pangea Premier SE, Belkin Gold & a generic USB cable that came with an HP printer)