[Darryl Ramm]

Hi Welcome to DUC.

If you are recording anything and the mic is connected to an outboard S/PDIF preamp then the signal it is coming via S/PDIF digital and its digital and stays digital to disk, but I'm not sure how that is relevant here. If you play back on headphones and that sounds better than your monitors then the most likely thing is causing a difference is the monitors/room. Compare one thing at a time. Have you got the room acoustic under control? You have a well regarded but low-end pair of monitors, are you playing back at a similar SPL to the headphones, etc.

Nobody has a hope of guessing what "less splendid" means. You need to he able to work at at least describe to yourself what the audible difference is.

You may benefit by making things simpler why you understand things, e.g. get rid of all the external stuff and just play wth the 002 driving headphones vs. monitors. And focus on that, room treatment, etc.

I'd tend to be thinking about upgrading/spending more on monitors (I'd argue they are often the most important thing to spend $ on) before buying outboards DACs But again, you can A/B the DAC and tell for yourself if you think that is worthwhile.