If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly upgrading your gear

No I don’t. I don’t upgrade anymore. Music doesn’t get any better than this. I have my end game setup.

Or, to say it differently the next upgrade is so much money and inifinitesimal diminishing returns that I have absolutely zero urge to make it.

Nobody understand a damn thing about all this. Get a good DAC as published by audiosciencereview, and you’re done. Really it’s that simple. And it’s cheap.

Music is the goal. Which is, the music, tone and intent is already recorded and I want to reproduce it faithfully. My system does just that, it’s silky clear.

I don’t want to play an instrument playing an instrument. That seems silly to me.

Definitely. I’m not particularly a fan of the CD format to begin with, it’s all plastiky, it flexes, it makes that squeaky noise, etc. It’s really not pleasant. I much prefer vinyl, but the quality is at least an order of magnitude worse than digital, so digital I go. And Roon makes the whole experience so good honestly.

You should do that in the digital domain if you want to do that.

Also, my amp doesn’t have tone control of course, because that’s a power amp.