Upgrading SATA cables

[grossmsj (Scott G)]

As far as investment decisions, spending some time getting the speakers set up right is first on the list. And free. But I’m pretty sure that a person like you has done that already.
A great feature of Roon is DSP. Getting a great convolution filter set up to correct bad room responses is the best bang for the buck anyone can make. No voodoo involved there, just wave physics. There is a great guide to this in this thread:

A guide how to do room correction and use it in Roon

I have experimented with REW (Room EQ Wizard) and room correction, and how to apply it in Roon, and decided to write a guide about it. This is what produced best result for me (I sit in a small room with concrete walls), but the way I did it should work well in bigger rooms and for different walls as well. This guide assumes you have a 2.0 or 2.1 system, and works best if you have a specific listening position and you sit in the middle of the sound, with an equal distance to left and right speak…

The results are nothing less than stunning in my system, that is similar to yours at least $$-wise, and my room is fairly well treated acoustically with RealTraps. Cost-wise the price tag for DSP is at least close to cable stuff. In some cases a LOT less, but compared to a SATA cable, probably a bit more. Roon’s implementation is very, very solid, even for MQA files.

I’ll leave it to others to comment on other tweaks…
Sorry for evangelizing!