DAC diminishing returns

I bought my current DAC after listening in store and in home.    The analog stage of a DAC is more important with respect to sound quality in my opinion.  Unlikely I will ever use DSD codecs so I bought a non OS DAC with tube analog stage.   

I listened to several below, at and above my budget.  No two sound alike in a very resolving system.   Some are subtle differences some are more pronounced.   In the end pick the one that sou ds best to you .    

Incremental investments in a DAC are completely dependent on your associated components and your anticipated future. So if I had your current DAC in my system (my average component cost is $20K), then upgrading it would provide huge differences each time until I got into roughly the range of my other components. Performance goes up with cost in general.

With the components you have today a Yggdrasil or Denfrips are likely to be valuable upgrades. Now consider you future system. I don’t think I saw info on your streamer. But assuming you are using a PC or Mac… I would upgrade the streamer after the DAC… that should give you a big improvement.

Lets say your current system cost $7K, then if you carefully upgraded all your components one level up, say to the total cost of $14… it would sound a lot better…. If you upgraded to $21K… or $50K, etc… each step would provide a big jump in overall performance. Is this what you see long term? Typically most folks get there by upgrading one component at a time.

If so, then each upgrade should be done with your eye on the next level… matching all the components on that level. This would suggest spending more than just to reach parity with the rest of your equipment.

R2R DACs do not sound the same as chip DACs. A Denfrips will not sound much of anything like a Chord.

Personally, I much prefer R2R DAC's and don't much care for the Chord sound, but for some people it's the opposite, and it's nothing to do with 'trendy', 'Apple', or 'Starbucks'. (I'd hardly call companies like these that have been successful for generations 'trendy', but maybe for some people, they are).

See if you can hear both (not necessarily Denafrips and Chord, but some good R2R and some good chip DAC) and see which, if either, you prefer.... 

I agree with ghdprenice ,  it's all relative to your system and future goals.   That holds true no matter the component.     I am a regular guy, there is no way I could assemble a great system overnight .  That said every upgrade should be more than subtle , or maybe that's not the component that should be replaced.   

Best example for me is my Zesto preamp.  That WAS the right component to buy at the time because the difference was so pronounced and appreciable by anyone who heard it .   Could I afford it new? No. But I got a great deal on a demo so it was worth every penny.  It will be my last pre for a while because in my system my preamp was the bottleneck.   Now any upgrades moving forward are fully realized.

Today chipsets are very , very good.  It's the way it's implemented and really at the end of the day how it sounds in your system.  A good dealer is invaluable and will let you take a demo unit home to evaluate.    That is my preferred way of upgrading.   A lot less trial and error.   

IMO, one should purchase dac superior to rest of setup, upgrade rest of system over time to experience full potential of dac, I'd never want to purchase dac inferior to rest of system. I like to maintain dac as superior piece, once I sense I've reached full potential, time to change out. This especially true with streaming, where a multitude of upgrades easily available.