Which DACs are known to be sweet/rich/relaxed?

@robert1976 After skimming through all the responses thus far I reread your original post. Seems you are happy with the sound quality of your current componentry on the majority of musical content, excepting poorly recorded/mastered rock (ie RHCP). Is that still the issue at hand?.

If so, my take is that you have excellent components (including the Tambaqui) and competent analog cabling/power cords. Most if not all changes you could make will improve some things but will involve tradeoffs in other aspects of sound character that may not be to your preference. This is tricky and gets expensive fast, especially as changing a key component such as a DAC can send you into the spiral of major cabling and even component changes to accommodate.

Although I suspect that there is no truly effective remedy for poor sound quality of a recording, you may be able to improve its tolerability without making major changes. I suggest that you contact The Cable Company or another authorized Synergistic Research dealer and request a risk free trial of a Synergistic Research Galileo SX Ethernet cable. This is my preferred Ethernet cable after testing several, but that is not my point. The unique thing about the SR products is that they provide two “tuning bullets” that are easily swapped out (unplug and replug).to change the sound character from a detailed, high resolution sound (the silver bullet) to a warmer, more forgiving sound (the gold bullet). I use this feature often to adjust for program material sound quality variances or even to compensate for varying AC quality at different times of the day. The gold bullet may well make the RHCP and other poor rock recordings (more) tolerable to you while allowing you to easily swap to the silver bullet for other listening if you prefer. It not, just return the loaner cable.

@dlcockrum Thanks for your input. A few posts ago I elaborated on how I dragged my system from the living room to my 13ft x 20ft bedroom. This room is very well padded and it's RT60 is only a third of my living room. This made ALL the difference. All problems were gone.

So, my echo-y living room is the culprit. I shouldn't be looking at new gear, but try to bring down the RT60 in my living room. Which is what I'm doing now :)

@robert1976 My apologies for missing that key post. Obviously my skimming skills are lacking. Glad that you found a solution. Enjoy!

All systems depended, on who can tell anyone how something will sound in their system. Room (huge) and then what gear used and their mix and matched, power cords used (huge),  Good quality well made DAC from companies that built from the ground up and not using OEM part to build it, this also makes for better long term use problem free. Lastly, a bad recording is what it is is, no matter the format it sucks,...Smile! 

@robert1976 Rob, I think you’re on the right track - addressing room acoustics is extremely important and without getting that done you’ll be chasing ghosts by swapping your components. I just started paying more attention to it as well and it is already paying off. Also, once your room is more or less tuned consider experimenting with network switches and filters. Depends on how sensitive the Tambaqui is to the quality of the incoming Ethernet signal, you may further improve the sound of your system as you run your Ethernet cable directly into the Tambaqui. I know it’s somewhat a controversial subject and I’m potentially opening a can of worms here by bringing it up, but it can help further improve the presentation and let your digital components do what they need to do much easier without having to deal with the electrical noise, RFI, EMI, etc. You may be surprised by the improvements. Again, depends on how your digital components deal with noise and how noisy your router is.

Some additional info and education on the subject with few examples here…

Network Acoustics Eno

Network Acoustics Muon

The sound of network switches