Meridian 508.20, upgrade or add dac

Ditto! Go for the upgrade! You'll have to spend over
$1000 to get anything close to the $700 upgrade. Plus
you'll be saving another couple hundred for the digital
cable, or sell the 508.20 and get a used 508.24 I have
Meridian as well, it's an excellent product.

I did the upgrade about a year ago. The .20 was already providing terrific sound but I wanted to try the .24. I paid the equivalent of about $900. here in Holland and the job was done by Meridian's Dutch distributor (My guess a Crystal chipset). What I got in return was slightly more air in the presentation and sizzle in cymbals but I also got a clean-bill-of-health on the inner workings of the unit. The unit is given a through testing. A little extra piece of mind. Jim

Another way to go is have your .20 modified with Blackgates & Schottky's. If you like the sound of the .20 and want to extract all it's capable of this is an option.

Of course the best thing to do would be audition the .20 & .24 together but if that's not a choice I'd suggest going over to the Asylum & reading everything you can about these two players.