Digital Upgrade Recommendations

yes i did have the etherregen at the time

i agree again w @sonic79 - not a great idea to take the usb feed off the core machine motherboard... that is a noisy noisy spot and the noise is generated in that machine, so putting an etheregen upstream of that machine doesn’t address that noise

what we are trying to do here is fully galvanically isolate/eliminate digital noise at the point where the music bitstream is being sent to the dac... 

…or better doing away with the Nucleus (and possibly Roon as well) In my setup InnuOS Zenith Mk3) Sense 2.08 sounds decidedly superior to Roon and the Nucleus isn’t the quitest server to start with… Hence my Intona Isolator recommendation

…and by the way: I started with the Etherregen on its own, then added an Antelope 10m clock via Shunyata Sigma clock cable, then added a Zerozone 2020 Benchmark LPS on a Nordost Brahma PC, then switched to a sterling silver DC cord. Each step is easily demonstrably audible. The additional equipment is a multiple of the original Etherregen purchase, yet I wouldn’t want to miss it.

Going optical post server is optimum way to go. Read John Swenson's papers, thoughts on streaming in general. @yyzsantabarbara  pointed to one thread. Here's another about everything under the sun.https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/62477-john-swenson-tutoring-paper-considerations-regarding-usage-of-external-reference-clocks-etherregen-and-other-sine-vs-square-impedance-cables%E2%80%94and-a-money-saving-surprise-at-the-end/

Swenson likely the preeminent expert on audio streaming.

one thing is definitely true, you start down this path, you do end up with lots of little boxes, cables, extra power supplies...  that aspect bugs me, but hey, at least at present, this is the drill to get the sound to be really really good...