I love my K-Works Superberry DAC. It's a highly modified Beresford 7510, with two coax and two optical inputs. The retail for this is around your price point of $1K. The Superberry, in a local audio club shoot out, tied a $10K MSB DAC. I use it with my SBT and my stock Oppo BDP-93. Both sound great, but I have a much better digital cable on the Oppo, so it is not a fair contest.
Unfortunately, K-Works has no distribution, so you must buy direct, with no return option. Unless you can visit K-Works in Clifton, NJ, or locate a nearby owner willing to let you listen, an audition will be difficult. But this DAC is super-smooth, detailed, dynamic and about as undigital sounding as I've heard in this general price range.
Unfortunately, K-Works has no distribution, so you must buy direct, with no return option. Unless you can visit K-Works in Clifton, NJ, or locate a nearby owner willing to let you listen, an audition will be difficult. But this DAC is super-smooth, detailed, dynamic and about as undigital sounding as I've heard in this general price range.