Would adding an external dac noticeably improve sound quality?

I think it all boils down to what better you have listened to. A badly mastered recording can be made to sound good only on some transducer tuned to color off the same , for discussion sake I will assume that all recordings are mastered well and have nothing wrong with them.

For me "Keith Don't Go" by Nils Lofgren is a very good example of speaker prowess. I used to enjoy this song a lot and had listened to it on my Dynaudio Emit M20 and Concept 20s. When I auditioned this on the Focal Aria 926 ( being run via a RN803) I was blown away , there was so much detail and character in the string plucks and the decay. When I came back home and tried listening to it with the M20/Concept 20 , it was just not the same. So I can correlate to speakers making a substantial difference on an upgrade.

Once I got the Focal Aria 926 , I ran it via a Crown PA but found something lacking and I got a Class AB PA. This resulted in immediate improvements in many aspects, then I chanced upon a tube pre and a streamer with room control , which got the Focals to sing even better. Finally I invested in a good dac and again have noticed improvements across the spectrum. I had loaned the dac to a fm , my pw link was sent for warranty and without these components I felt the SQ deteriorated to a very noticeable level. But if I had not listened any of these, probably I would have been happy as it sounds with just the PA.

Personally I would suggest to first settle on Speakers of choice , if you like the KEF signature and are settled on the q350 then good, else if you want to go higher up in same signature go for the KEF R3. Other upgrades options would be Wharfedale Denton , Revel bookshelfs and so forth. The m20/evo 4.2 might turn out to be minor upgrades over a kef q350.

Once you settle on any speaker , then start investing in a chain. Get a good DAC and then decide if you want to go full seperates or use a dac + IA
 
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I think it all boils down to what better you have listened to. A badly mastered recording can be made to sound good only on some transducer tuned to color off the same , for discussion sake I will assume that all recordings are mastered well and have nothing wrong with them.

For me "Keith Don't Go" by Nils Lofgren is a very good example of speaker prowess. I used to enjoy this song a lot and had listened to it on my Dynaudio Emit M20 and Concept 20s. When I auditioned this on the Focal Aria 926 ( being run via a RN803) I was blown away , there was so much detail and character in the string plucks and the decay. When I came back home and tried listening to it with the M20/Concept 20 , it was just not the same. So I can correlate to speakers making a substantial difference on an upgrade.

Once I got the Focal Aria 926 , I ran it via a Crown PA but found something lacking and I got a Class AB PA. This resulted in immediate improvements in many aspects, then I chanced upon a tube pre and a streamer with room control , which got the Focals to sing even better. Finally I invested in a good dac and again have noticed improvements across the spectrum. I had loaned the dac to a fm , my pw link was sent for warranty and without these components I felt the SQ deteriorated to a very noticeable level. But if I had not listened any of these, probably I would have been happy as it sounds with just the PA.

Personally I would suggest to first settle on Speakers of choice , if you like the KEF signature and are settled on the q350 then good, else if you want to go higher up in same signature go for the KEF R3. Other upgrades options would be Wharfedale Denton , Revel bookshelfs and so forth. The m20/evo 4.2 might turn out to be minor upgrades over a kef q350.

Once you settle on any speaker , then start investing in a chain. Get a good DAC and then decide if you want to go full seperates or use a dac + IA
Sounds prudent....it's protracted insight....lemme start afresh....the only crunch would be auditioning .....this is where FM's with wisdom in hardware makes one to short list the options and not go on a wild hunt....thanks @ fLUX
 
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Instead of tidal, spotify, pls try some wav files. A wav or cd is not comparable to online streaming and youtube. Online streaming sucks life from music. Choosing a dac is not easy. They have subtly different sound signatures. I tried many dacs before i settled on r2r dacs and decided i could never listen to music without an r2r dac. I bought my first r2r dac audiogd dac 19 around 5 yrs back and i still love it. I find it so much relevant to bollywood music and a good alternative to warm vinyl kind of sound.
 
Instead of tidal, spotify, pls try some wav files. A wav or cd is not comparable to online streaming and youtube. Online streaming sucks life from music. Choosing a dac is not easy. They have subtly different sound signatures. I tried many dacs before i settled on r2r dacs and decided i could never listen to music without an r2r dac. I bought my first r2r dac audiogd dac 19 around 5 yrs back and i still love it. I find it so much relevant to bollywood music and a good alternative to warm vinyl kind of sound.

Yup I recently got a R2R DAC, has transformed bollywood music listening totally. Even slow paced hollywood music sounds amazing ("Let Her Go" by Passenger never felt so good)
 
Yup I recently got a R2R DAC, has transformed bollywood music listening totally. Even slow paced hollywood music sounds amazing ("Let Her Go" by Passenger never felt so good)
Would appreciate specific lead on model / dealer / price of R2R DAC....

Thanks
 
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