Best DACs under $7,000.00

Believing in Barbara is even more risky!

I don’t get why the Ayon line of DACs are not mentioned more often.  The Stealth XS DAC sounds amazing.  Pair it with a high quality power cord and its sound is outstanding.  It is open and detailed which is why a good power cord is needed to keep the highs on some recordings from being too edgy.  It creates a giant soundstage, the decay goes on forever- more in most cases than on my vinyl recordings.  I close my eyes to listen and the soundstage goes wide and deep.  I open my eyes and suddenly walls are in the middle of the soundstage.  I love doing that, it works every time.  The detail and resolution in CDs with this DAC is way more than I ever thought possible from digital.  To me this DAC is the biggest open secret in audio.

I heard a couple of big name, big dollar DACs in November.  Came home even more satisfied with my Stealth XS.

@tonywinga I have no doubt that the Ayon Stealth XS DAC is as good as you say it is. About a decade ago I had an Ayon Triton II KT-88 integrated amp that I LOVED the sonics of.
But I think you may not see as much as you’d like to see of Ayon in this forum, might be because of many individual issues over the years involving their CD players/transports, as well as a couple or few integrated models. Ayon or USA Tube didn’t always —or were unable to— fix the issues. More than a few ended up with a CD5s brick. These varying things over the last decade may of made people weary and simply look elsewhere. 

It’s nice to see that Ayon is still around and I’m sure they have good business in their area of the world but the reliability and their ability to repair their own gear has been in question before around here... With that said, I did have a channel go out on my Triton int. early on and I was offered a very very good price difference, from USATube, to upgrade to the just new Triton II at that time. So my experience with them was good. 

Good to know.  Customer service after the sale is just as important as performance.  I'm at 2 years/2500 hours with my Stealth XS.  My CD transport has much fewer hours since I stream mostly these days.  So far, all has been good.  I hope I haven't jinxed myself.  My 2 year warranty runs out this month.

All of my gear is US made except for this DAC and Transport.  I have had issues over the years with amps, preamps, turntables, speakers and CD players.  My experience has been that the US companies- at least the brands I have,  fall all over themselves to fix a problem regardless of being in warranty or out of warranty.  They value reputation.  

I’ll add this.  I cracked open the DAC once to take a look around inside and to add tube dampers- just because.  I found the build quality and workmanship to be outstanding.  I have a picture of the innards on my system page.