Does an upgrade make sense?

just listening with eyes closed vs. open, light levels, etc., make a huge difference

@sfgak +1. A long time ago I saw a Wilson Audio demo with BAT electronics at a show where David Wilson played a Sting song with full band live in concert, and he turned the lights down and it made a huge difference and was pretty incredible — and I didn’t even like Wilson speakers back then (it was some Watt Puppy version BTW). As soon as I got home I ordered the CD and I still never listen to that song with the lights on ever because it’s just a totally different experience. I find live recordings in general benefit more from low lighting than studio recordings, at least in my experience. BTW, if anyone’s interested in the track I’m talking about it’s “Fragile” from Sting’s Still be Love in the World CD released in 2001. In my system the entire stage and performers like four feet above my speakers and crowd noise like individual whistles and screams come from all around and way outside the speakers, and it really produces the feeling and experience of being in a stadium at a live concert. Really fun. FWIW.

@soix Yeah, I forget which live jazz album I was listening to, but I got really annoyed at the table to the left of me making too much noise during the performance -- jostling and whispering... A great reminder of a great soundstage...

@sfgak Ah the perils of having a good audio system.  How do we do it?

Here is a path that will tie you up for a bit. The New Cambridge Audio CXN V2 is Roon Ready.  explore upgrading to that and firing up a Roon trial and running the core on a PC or desktop you might have on the network.  At this point you are not testing SQ but all the other features ROON environment provides, like blending your Local files with Qobuz offerings and all the other meta data features.    Then if that is all good then get a real audio quality host of the Roon core like a SGC ST i5.  Then you can compare the SQ of Roon to what the CXN V2 can do with Roon out of the loop. 

All the above 😉, add getting ears cleaned!  Listening late at night in dark environment, clearing the mind of distractions/thoughts.  Listening as a skill vs. a passive activity.  Trying a new artist or genre of music.  All good things to try.