affordable DAC for rock/metal

mhdt Constantine is up to the task + sounds very good on all kinds of music.

"many rock/metal CD's can sound overly aggressive and annoying on many high resolution systems"

Not sure I'd agree with this.

A good high res system only gives you what is there. Rock/metal can be a lot more difficult for a system to reproduce well than many think. You have to have good overall system synergy and component matching and amplification that is up to the task of reproducing dynamics and transients effortlessly, otherwise things become nasty, fatiguing and annoying.

Interesting.

I think the choice of DAC will depend on the inherent character of the rest of the system. Personally, I do not want any artificial warmth or charm especially when it comes to rock/pop/metal music. The end results should be neutral, lively, dynamic and perhaps even sometimes unnerving, like dropping a bomb.

Undertow,

No easy answer

The recordings are what they are as you point out and are rarely perfect.

Better to get what you can out of a variety of recordings regardless of the flaws and not try to make a particular flawed recording sound "right".

Only you can judge what sounds best to you in your system. Some systems benefit from injecting a little warmth and others do not for sure.

Rooski,

I had a pair of IIcs for a good 20 years and know their sound quite well!

M,

Your Onkyo is a Class D amp I believe. Not sure what design it is (IcePower or other), but I recently acquired an IcePower Class D amp and have found it to be quite good for hard rock/metal type music. The top end is quite smooth and not aggressive or fatiguing in any way. If your amp is similar, I would think it a synergistic match for Klipsch or horn speakers in general.

I have both mhdt paradisea tube ( 1 step down from havana) and Contantine SS DACs. I much prefer the SS DAC for rock/metal on my good system for just that reason. It provides more bite. The tube DAC is warmer and more enticingly smooth and rhythmic perhaps and works best for acoustic music I find. Note that tube rolling in the tube DAC can have a big effect. A NOS Tung Sol tube rather than the stock GE tube tightens things up and delivers a more SS sound.