Just sharing some tricks I have tried on A26, maybe useful to some :
1) unless you are using a very good streamer, the LAN performance of this streamer beats most cheap to mid-priced streamers, especially with trick no. 4 below
2) use FMC, even cheap ones help..... I am using USD10 ones, works wonders. Just be aware for cheap ones, the transformers must be crappy, use a separate power network for the cheap transformer or else these transformers will mess up the power of your audio system
3) for FMC, experiment with different fibre optics, they all sound different, use ceremic ones, and also for some reason fibre optics are directional when used in audio, there is one correct direction, try both ways and listen
4) if you are using upnp put a PC in between. Install Foobar2000, install uPnP Mediarenderer and uPnP control point. Using MConnect or Bubbleupnp, stream to Foobar and then from Foobar to Gustardrenderer. Via the computer, somehow the sound is completely transformed. First of all, the sound no longer stutters no matter what you play. Also, the sound is a lot more organic and natural.
The sound using the above tricks definitely outperforms a Wiim Pro streamer which I had, I suspect even streamers within $3k may not be able to beat the sound of that. Only downside is Foobar2000 upnp mediarenderer plugin cannot handle dsd, so have to convert dsd to pcm in foobar2000.