You will need to either 1) make some basic choices (see below), or 2) trust your ears.
Choices - How are you going to connect to the DAC: USB, S/PDIF or optical? Do you prefer upsampling/oversampling, or NOS/native rate? Do want to drive headphones directly from your DAC? Do you want a volume/gain control on your DAC? Remote?
For me, right now, I'm a big fan of the Antelope Audio Zodiac DACs. Three models with diferent price points, but they all sound great. But, frankly, there are no bad DACs; at least I have never heard one. Just some that I prefer more than others.
Choices - How are you going to connect to the DAC: USB, S/PDIF or optical? Do you prefer upsampling/oversampling, or NOS/native rate? Do want to drive headphones directly from your DAC? Do you want a volume/gain control on your DAC? Remote?
For me, right now, I'm a big fan of the Antelope Audio Zodiac DACs. Three models with diferent price points, but they all sound great. But, frankly, there are no bad DACs; at least I have never heard one. Just some that I prefer more than others.