How much should I spend on a new DAC

 If anything I would get rid of the Pass amp and get an amp with a lot more power, say 200wpc. The Pass's 25wpc is really limiting the dynamic capabilities of the Sonus Faber speakers!

Good grief.

Pass Labs specifies the XA25's output power as 25Wpc into 8 ohms and 50Wpc into 4 ohms (both equivalent to 14dBW). However, as you can see in figs. 4 and 5, the amplifier exceeded its specified power output at the clipping point, which we define as when the THD+noise equals 1%. At that THD+N percentage the XA25 delivered 80Wpc into 8 ohms (19dBW) and 130Wpc into 4 ohms (18.1dBW). It appears from the shape of the traces in these graphs that Pass specifies the XA25's power as when the THD+N is close to 0.01%

https://www.stereophile.com/content/pass-laboratories-xa25-power-amplifier-measurements

The amp and speakers are fine for moderate listening levels, unless you crank it up a lot and expect maximum dynamics. Ignore the naysayers who don’t understand lower power Pass amps, or never owned one. Ditch the noisy computer front end, and the 9038 equipped project dac that makes it even more grainy. No, its not just zeroes and ones. Having less noise and a darker background on your front end matters, musically. Yes, as stated many times already - a good streamer and dac are in order and will help if you truly want your handle to be true @celestial__sound

Try to 45-day buy-demo at least two different streamers/dacs, paired with a really good power supply (quieter) and you’ll hear and realize the difference first hand. Lots of good suggestions here, above. See R2R Ladder NOS dacs, or Auralic, Gustard, Innuous, others. >>Read up on the numerous prior R2R Ladder DAC threads here on Agon too<<. Your Pass Labs amp and Sonus Faber speakers deserve a lot better upstream. Best of Luck.

I have 1 DAC that cost $3300 and another that cost $14000 (but with built-in streaming). In terms of the DAC sound, I like both equally. The higher priced DAC showed me that the laws of diminishing returns seem to be very strong for DACs.

With my lower cost DAC I use a Sonore OpticalRendu (fibre) for streaming and that is equivalent to the built-in fibre streaming in the more expensive DAC. The oR can be found from $1-$2K.

Would anyone here with engineering background will bother to explain how the network streamer affects the sound quality, or can point to any research or documentation from the web? Thanks

UpTone-J.Swenson EtherREGEN ’white paper’.pdf (shopify.com)

John Swenson’s Tech Corner – UpTone Audio

This guy created the Optical Rendu too.

I use a EtherRegen from a network switch. A short Ethernet cable goes from the switch to the ER. I use the ER from B > A and the A side sends a fibre optical stream to my OpticalRendu. That goes by USB to my lower cost DAC. I have 2 of these DAC and selling 1.

My higer cost DAC has fibre built-in and the plan is to get a FMC (like a ER) and connect the fibre directly to the DAC.

The FMC is not a must but it does improve the clairity of sound a bit.

It is not just 1’s and 0’s since analog cables like Ethernet can carry network noise into the DAC. A glass fibre cable cannot carry this noise. Ed Mietner says the same thing on his web site. Switching power supplies like on a network switch also have analog noise, as does a computer connected to the network. I have all of this noise and more. However, I use fibre to stop it just before the DAC. It is so easy to hear the difference in sound. That is why I only use fibre for all my setups (4).

@celestial__sound 

Search and read the forums. Watch YouTube videos (Hans Beekhuyzen, John Darko), read reviews. there’s wealth of information available that explains the benefits of a streamer over using a computer to stream your music.