OK so I got my DAC MAGIC XS and wow what a difference , I can hear " everything" sounds that I never heard before ...so I shall be playing with it more this very night .
You can hear a clear step up from the STX? TBH, i have never heard a clear step up from any dac/amp running at the same volume. For my headphones, the most i hear is subtle. Fuller bass, and slightly tamed highs. Nothing like the improvement better cans make.
I have "upgraded" my amp 6 times and dac 4 times. Each amp upgrade felt better. So to me, the difference between my first amp and my last amp should be huge but it isn't. The difference is smaller than the difference between two tier of headphones (the £150 headphones difference is far more apparent than the £1650 amp difference). The sounds i could now hear, were always there in the previous amps. I guess i had a natural heightened attention when upgrading and must have been listening to the music a lot more analytically than before.
However, sound and music is a passion to me. So i am happy to pay a lot for the smallest of improvement, however i am under no illusions that to most people that difference is far from worth the price (amp/dac wise). That is if they can even hear the difference. Most cannot pass a blind test, as they haven't had enough experience with the gear. This shows just how subtle these changes are. IMO as long as the cans are playing loud enough, transducers are ~80% of the quality with the amp/dac sharing the rest. I tend to lean more on the amp being better value than the dac.
I only write this to balance things out. Some people may read some of these comments and expect a lot more difference and be disappointed. The difference may be very big to some people, but that will be the minority. I'm guessing they have above average hearing. But most people blind tested wont pass. It's an interesting hobby for me, not only because of the awesome sound but also from a psychological view point. That huge sound difference disappeared as soon as i introduced blind testing.