Suggestions for audio upgrade

[Charente]

@uyire Forgive me, but I can't see how those choices relate to your budget of $1500 ... they are either too high or vastly too low by comparison.

[Charente]

@uyire Ah, OK ... Whilst I would accept that the Brooklyn is an excellent DAC, you are paying for a lot of features ... do you need them ? I decided that I would only be playing PCM up to 24/192 resolution (altho' most of my music and streaming is at 16/44.1) ... so I focused on the best DAC that only supported that resolution, but did it well and which I could afford ... hence my personal choice went to the Schiit Gungnir MultiBit, as @gmgraves suggested above. In my (and others) opinion, it punches well above its price point and should last you a while.

 

However, looking at your main system, I would be tempted to lower my sights on the DAC and consider a Schiit BiFrost MultiBit (or indeed the Emotiva you suggest) so that I could squeeze a new amplifier setup into your budget limit ... such as the Jotunheim/Vidar or (a tube pre-amp) Saga/Vidar. Either pairing could do well with your Klipsch speakers and a future speaker upgrade you might contemplate in the future.

 

I am sure that others will suggest some non-Schiit alternatives.