What DAC upgrade made you say “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

It’s been fun reading all of the posts as I just finished up a many month DAC hunt. 
I tried dCS (Bartok and Rossini, both with and without the Rossini Clock), Brinkmann Nyquist Mk II, Nagra Classic, and Berkeley Audio Design (do not remember which one), but the only DAC that got me excited moving up from my Bluesound Node 2i was the MSB Premier with Powerbase, v2 renderer, and femto 93 clock. The timbre I’m hearing now is exceptionally natural and the imaging is very 3D. I’m not going anywhere DAC wise until I can afford a Reference. The other DACs were all very nice, with the Nyquist Mk II my second favorite overall, but the Premier really stood separate from the rest. 
Now, my Shunyata Everest/Omega XC combo and everything else in my system certainly helps the sound, so maybe the overall combination is really what made me go “wow.” I’m getting a very compelling musical experience every time I sit down to listen, day or night. 
Happy listening!

I've owned a PS Audio DirectStream DAC since they first came out, and every time I've applied a firmware update, I've enjoyed better sound quality, the latest one is one of the best upgrades they've offered.

While staying with the same dac (project dac box s2+) I did upgrades,,,

My “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better...” upgrades are:

1) Change to the new ifi Elite power supply
2) Change of optical cable to the Supernova 7 Mini Toslink Optical

I was stunned that changing the optical cable made a huge difference in sound quality. Thank you thecableco.com for their loaner program where I could try out optical cable change and insisting I do so when I couldn’t fathom that an optical cable would make a difference!

I am a long time analogue audiophile that has "dipped my toe" in digital many times over the years and retracted with horror.

Pleased that in the last few years digital can now provide an enjoyable listening experience at surprisingly affordable prices!

But there are plenty of (too many) bad digital transfers of old recordings and many not great new ones so my analogue rig is not going anywhere where pure analogue still is more enjoyable. Looking fwd to my next DAC upgrade into $1K+ territory.....

too many DAC.  I have Oppo205 , Denafrips Ares ii and Topping D90. All sound good. It's the music not the DAC that make the sound good. I won't waste my time and money for DAC. Rather spend time listen to good music.

two very different approaches to Dacs made a sonic difference immediately, when dialed in even better 
The feature driven ADI Dac2 FS
The tube output exquisite sounding Cary 200ts