Looking for a true upgrade in sound quality

The rest of my system is pretty decent. It consists of a Modwright KWH 225I integrated, Tyler Acoustic Woodmere II speakers, an OPPO 105 for disks, Panasonic SP 10 TT with Dynavector SUT and Ortofon MC10 cart. All synergistic Reasearch Tessla apex cabling. Stereo Rythmic F12 subs. Room is lightly treated with GIC bass traps in front corners and some homemade absorption at first reflection points. The veiled portion of the sound is in the mid to upper midrange. Thanks, Allen.

This does not sound a whole lot like an issue with the digital front end or your Lumin (that threw a veil).

For starters, try plugging in your dac analog out into the different inputs of the Modwright amp, swap inputs with whatever you had your TT plugged into, etc.

Are you real sure that your TT isn’t sounding a bit veiled too dude? Are your ears being a lil extra forgiving there with the TT for some reason? Eitherway...the confoundance here is that a TT/phono stage plugged into the same flaky hybrid amp sounding fine is not a full guarantee that your amp has no issues (source output V being a lil different).

It is generally a good idea for any audiophile to have an extra pair of speakers, an extra amp, dacs, etc sitting around in storage to swap/identify/diagnose things easier by process of elimination. If you don’t, borrow/swap a SS amp (with no tubes in it whatsoever this time) from another guy in town and determine if it is a Modwright or a flaky Modwrong. I bet the Modwrong didn’t give you a input trim feature either.

No mention of acoustic treatments, speaker placement, or straight up better speakers?

+1 @soix , assuming a transparent enough audio chain and hearing capability to match

Agree that the OP should try a filter first, then new DAC, then maybe streamer upgrade.

some DAC s with very favorable reviews:

• 2.3 Doge 7 MkII tube DAC
• -2.6 Ferrum Wandla - HR competes w 10k DAC +1.2 HYPSOS power supply
• -2.7 LAiV Harmony DAC
• 3.0 Musician Aquarius - sounds like a $5k DAC
• 4.3 Denafrips Terminator [BNC in XLR out](But USB in best per AudioBacon)
• 4.5 Wired4Sound DAC-2v2SE
• -5.0 Audio-GD R7HE MK2
• 5.6 Kitsune Hifi May-KTE.
• *6.6 Lampizator Baltic 4 (punches way above price point- beats KTE).
• -6.8 Bel Canto Ex1 DAC (Transparent)
• -7.1 T+A DAC200
• 7.3 Lampizator Golden Atlantic TRP,

@backwash

You can try our WRT cable. The main bottleneck of the current audio system is the interconnect. This is true for every system, without exception. After solving this bottleneck, the sound quality of the audio system will have a big leap. So every one of our users has a surprising discovery after using the WRT cable. Try it, you have nothing to lose. Try it and find out how your audio system will sound better after the bottleneck is eliminated. You can read the article "Peculiarities of the Audio System" to learn why the audio system needs to use the WRT cable.
After trying the WRT cable, you can share your actual experience here.

I have been investigating SS DAC's for quite a period of time and until yesterday had not discovered one used on systems that I am familiar with that has caught my attention like the way a Denafrip Venus II had yesterday at a Bake Off between DAC's and CDP's.

SS DAC's and Valve CDP's were used as comparisons.

I am / have been familiarised over time with all models in use, and these were attached to a New Design 3 Watt Output Tetrode Pre Amp - Tetrode -Pentode Power Amp, with a Speaker unfamiliar to me, with reasonable High Efficiency.

The Venus II has had FW Updates.

In the past the Venus with out a FW update was OK but a big ?mark being present over how long it could be lived with used for extended length replays beyond comparison periods of time allocated.

Yesterday in this system and a follow up Amp in use, a PP 300b, the Venus II proved itself to be a very attractive SS DAC, especially one I would consider experiencing for much longer periods of time in the home system.

The Denafrips Venus II was used  in comparison to other Digital Sources costing up to £6K