Upgrading from my Yiggy

[Norton]

I’ve never heard your DAC but plenty of owners seem to rate it highly  (although not so much on measurements according to ASR).

 

Is it possible that, regardless of budget, there is another DAC that will be an improvement? Most likely yes, but whether you would deem it a cost effective improvement is another matter..  My suggestion is try and borrow something else highly rated for its PCM capability from a dealer for a home dem in your system over a number of days and see whether you think your DAC can be improved on.  Not something you’d necessarily buy or budget for but just as a test.  Perhaps a Chord DAVE or Hugo TT2/Mscaler?  For an end game PCM only DAC I’d also think about the Phasure NOS, but not sure how easy that is to home dem.

 

It’s also possible that your source could be improved (it’s not clear how the music gets from hard disk to your DAC). Again, just  as a test I’d suggest trying  http://wtfplay-project.org/ (see also thread under software at this site).  It’s free and while it won’t  suit everyone as a permanent option, at least if you notice an improvement in SQ it will demonstrate that your source can also be improved on.