Not really. Noisefloor is something that obscures the nuances and microdetail. Usually people are unaware of it untill it gets removed. Happens all the time.

I've had much better luck with Oyaide connectors than Furutech. Their Inlet PP is just unbeatable regardless of price. Furutech NCF may give you more detail but they lack in density of the sound and overall tonal beauty. Inlet PP is one of the cheapest and best upgrades avaialable.

Be careful with Master fuses. One is often enough, some systems may need two. But more of them usually corresponds to deterioration in SQ. Just like it is said on their website. Been there , done that.

It's gonna get better.

Antipodes K50. It has their excellent S20 reclocker already installed. Before that I had a CX-EX combo with their P2 external reclocker. Antipodes P2 was noticeably better than Mutec but it cost more as well. Going with K50 eliminated extra digital and power cables and freed up some space on...

Wow! That was quite a piece of work done! Thanks for sharing.

I wouldn't call Master "bright". In my setup it makes sound...."harder"? I don't know how to explain it. It's like you can feel the textures, they are a lot more defined and there's noticeably more energy. However, one Master fuse was enough , I tried to add more and it was an overkill...

No point going the Orange route. Purple fuses are slightly more expensive but WAY better. Deeper and more powerful bass, fuller midrange, more extended highs. Just higher resolution and more balanced sound overall.

Used it for a while. It's weakest point is the SMPS that generates a lot of noise. Ordered a custom LPS and what a difference it made. A little later added a RAL DC cable and there was another noticeable improvement. However, this really jacks up the price : Mutec itself, LPS, a second digital...

A good linear power supply works miracles with Qutest. I'd say, it doubles the DAC's price/performance ratio. It'd be cool to have a separate thread with people sharing their LPS choices. LPS also allows us to use different fuses and power cables which greatly affects SQ and sound signature.

Mundorf Silver Gold kicks ass. Excellent choice !

The DSD hype is overrated. First of all, there is very little material actually recorded in DSD. 24-96 is still studios' standard. The fact that they were later upsampled to DSD doesn't mean that all of a sudden some new information appeared in the recording that previously wasn't there. Also...

True balance is the way to go. Some DACs sound quite noticeably better through XLR outputs than RCA, with others you won't hear any difference. But what you always get is the immunity to noise.

If you get tired of them, take a closer look at Superlux. Not sure about now but what they used to do in the past was copy expensive headphones for a fraction of the price. And they did it well. I had them before and liked them a lot. Those were one of the best 50 bucks ever spent in my life.

Most likely. Another question is whether you want your setup to be portable or it's going to sit on your desk. Right now there are plenty of decent chinese players of Cain, Fiio, Shanling, iBasso type. This is the easy way. But gradually building a full-blown setup with separates is a lot...