New streamer or dac?

Hi @bikeboy52 : what is your DAC right now?

I would not  strap myself with Tidal that MQA is no improvement in fact it’s part compressed and many dac companies refuse to be extorted with $$ big licensing fees, QObuz   IMO better for that reason alone ,plus it sounds good.

 Myself have both  dedicated computer and streamer, using uptone audio Ether regen hub cleans the incoming digital signal from router  then the output , bought a Denafrips reclocker which totally cleans, and cleans signal to dac. The dac which I have the New Terminator2 is Excellent ,with reclocker even better and it has dual frequency 45,49 MHz that can sync with reclocker BNC cables  to I2S from reclocker to T2 for purest  signal , a much bigger improvement then even a very good server streamer.

Moon 280d is the perfect solution.  It's both a high end DAC and a high end streamer.  I was running a Blusound Node 2i as a transport feeding into my McIntosh DAC, and the Moon was a major upgrade.  Well worth the money spent, and you actually save when comparing to running a $2k streamer into a $2k DAC.  

Consider the digital end just like the analog end. Each component is critical and must be of equal sound quality… and upstream matters most. If you have a high quality turntable, phono stage in front of your preamp… digital is the same thing (streamer and DAC).

Today’s streamer can perform on the same level as analog… so nearly infinite music for nearly no cost (after initial purchases). Typically it can cost a little bit more to get a digital end to sound as good… although highly variable say 10 - 15% (not by randomly choosing by cost… carefully chosen compatible devices). If you are slowly working towards a better system, get separate DAC and Streamer… skip the CD player… they are on the way out.

So with that in mind. I highly recommend Aurender. I still own two… a budget N100 and their flagship W20SE.. Truly remarkable devices. Your strategy could be to get an integrated streamer, Streamer and DAC… then after a while, get a much better DAC… then in a few years upgrade to a real high end Streamer. Or pick out a high end DAC and streamer at once… more than twice as hard. But like most high end systems…. Research… Research… Research. Happy to help further… but need to know what you got now and what kind of budget you have. But in general, A $25K streamer sounds significantly better than a $10K… which sounds better than a $5K, and a$2.5K, and a $1.25K streamer… same for DACs.

Streamer dac preamp would be my recommendation.  And one that can receive tidal connect. The best way to get the most bits. A streamer dac eliminates the need to convert outdated transmission protocol (spdif,usb,coax) to a bit perfect signal. My understanding is I2S is currently the best protocol for this transmission. I think most Streamer DACs have this built in....  I use PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC MKII with Bridge II, but Cambridge CX always seemed interesting when I was shopping on a more limited budget.