musician aquarius r2r dac any good?

I also want to mention: My Macintosh system is capable of extracting very fine detail from a good recording. I found it out by borrowing a very expensive DCS Bartok DAC from my buddy. Of course, I have no money for that. But, I am looking for some DAC that can get close to the Bartok’ characteristic.

Sounds like a great system, which is getting better. It would be helpful to see your system and venue. It is useful in assessing the impact of changes.

@auroravengeance offers a good caution that it can be easy to tip the balance to too analytical if not careful and lose the music (rhythm and pace). 

Based on your desired characteristics, you should also consider Denafrips Pontus II. I owned Qutest and preferred the Pontus by quite a bit. It adds a little warmth and heft to the sound that the Qutest was missing. 

@arafiq  the Aquarius is basically a clone of Denafrips Terminator. Musician is an original brand created by the company that develops and manufactures Denafrips stuff in China, that is why Musician and Denafrips’ stuff look nearly identical. Denafrips is just a brand created by a distributor company in Singapore.

@viethluu  I have not heard the Bartok, Puccini, or Vivaldi yet because they are also outside my budget. But reading online about the DCS stuff, yes, I think a higher end R2R DAC should give you what you are looking for.

@auroravengeance yes, I agree Denafriqs and Musician are basically the same design, But different voicing though. Musician also use better part inside which is why I prefer the Musician. But, I imagine I would be more than happy with the May or Denafriqs.