can i get a significant dac upgrade over my Lumin d2 for 2k?

@vthokie83 Makes total sense to keep Vodka as a constant, and I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts. I’ll be getting my Iris on Sunday now (shipping delay), and since it’s used it won’t take too long to settle in and get a take on what it’s doing. I’m starting with a cheap 1-foot Monoprice HDMI cable — I read some stuff that said HDMI doesn’t travel well so try to use 1 foot or less and the Monoprice was one of the only ones I found at such a short length. Plus, from people who installed DDCs they seemed to indicate there was not a huge difference relatively speaking between HDMI cables so figured the Monoprice was a good place to start. Once I get a feel for the sound I’m gonna try a DH Labs HDMI 2.1 that’s $95 for 0.5m (yeah I know, but it’s the shortest length they offer) and see if there’s a meaningful improvement. Anyway, that’s my plan for now and subject to change when someone inevitably shares some info that points me in a completely different direction. It never ends…

https://silversonic.com/products/video-cables/hdmi-2-1/

I'll for sure report back on the Gustard, ETA is 4 weeks

We’ll be eagerly awaiting your impressions from our home and native land. 

@soix

usb to dac will be Kimber as well as balanced xlr to pre. Pre is balanced xlr to mono blocks. All lengths are 1 meter. Am nervous for arrival of dac as payment made through pay pal but it has been three days and it is crickets from china. No confirmation at all!

@sgreg1 Who did you order the DAC through?  If it’s one of the bigger guys I wouldn’t worry, plus you also have protection thru your credit card and likely PayPal too.  Did you get confirmation on screen they got the order when you paid?  The only thing I’d worry about is if the order never processed due to an internet glitch.  Did it show up as a charge through PayPal and/or your credit card?  If it did there’s a good chance it’s in process.  They may just be inundated with orders after the soundnews.net review, so maybe contact them just to make sure, and you can check on delivery time too while you’re at it but sounds like it’s at about a month right now.  I wouldn’t be concerned yet if they got your order.