I went with a used Yamaha CX-A5000. It’s a quality Preamp, DAC and has enough streaming for me. I do Spotify only. It cost me less than $500 and it drives my MacIntosh amp.

It was the company that became Kenwood. They were high quality items.

DSP doesn’t change what you were intended to hear, it fixes your system to enable you to hear what the music the way it was recorded. Unless your preamp and amp are broken, most of the coloration you will hear is coming from your speakers and your room, which DSP is designed to fix.