Will a new Dac improve the sound?

Cary makes good equipment but the progress in DACs since 2005ish has been enormous. It has Burr-Brown DACs.. I worked at Burr Brown for almost 20 years. Yes, an upgraded DAC can improve the sound. I would recommend a Schiit Gungnir ~$1.2K… or if you really are looking to improve your system over time, invest in a Schiit Yggdrasil… at ~$2.1K these both perform at a much higher level. Should really improve the sound.

You can see my systems under my ID. I have pursued high end digital since the release of the CD (yuck)… and all the incremental improvements since. The DAC is a really critical part of the CD player… night and day since 2005.

I think you would have to spend considerably more on a DAC to hear any appreciable difference. However a streamer/DAC would get you into streaming via Qobuz, Tidal etc.

I play my Adcom CD deck thru my Teac 501 DAC and get a considerable improvement.

For 1100.00 you can't go wrong with Cambridge audio Cxnv2. The Wolfson dac chips sound very good and it works flawless as a streamer. I have one in my den running a Melody h6550 integrated.  The roon also works perfect. Streamer, dac,preamp,roon. Then when you're ready for another upgrade send it to Modwright for the tube Truth Mod. Puts it on a whole different level.

I’ve used the following upgrades in my low-budget system for the last several months:

1. Audiolab 6000cdt transport

2. Cambridge Audio Dacmagic 200 DAC

3. Wyred4sound Remedy reclocker (purchased late last year)

Total price: @$1500.

A big improvement to my digital source (lots of 44.1/16 CDs, no streaming). CDs are now 96/24 playback. Improved soundstage with everything much more focused. Almost no harshness a lot of the time; when it occasionally happens, my uneducated guess is that it might be the quality of the masters that were used. Totally happy with the results.