Need a DAC Recommendation.

Second Schitt

If you could save just a few hundred more I have owned many very good dacs ,look up Underwood Wally 
his new line ,I am currently running in one I bought 
Audio GD  R8 MK2 dac .it is a non oversampling dac and built like a Tank ,just compare with anything under $2500 it has very big dynamics and control but still very warm and natural with excellent 
grip on the performance.It is very special ,it weighs 25 lbs from the 3 R core transformers and over 30,000 uf in filter capacitance it just came out end of April ,it’s well worth the extra  few hundred bucks I am 63 and have heard most everything out there .
Give Walter at call asking $1995 delivered see what he can do I guarantee this R2R dac won’t  disappoint .

Chord qutest. Brand new 1400. Fantastic dac. 

Nice to see I'm not the only one that finds the RME great bang for buck and a keeper. I tried the Chord Qutest it was nice but found it a little bass shy and hifi sounding. One thing I enjoy with RME is the balanced output along with rca output. 

I run a Audience au24 se balanced to one input on pre and a Acoustic Zen silver ref 2 rca to another input on preamp and can switch inputs on the fly to adjust to the sonic quality of recording. The AZ comes across a little softer. I run all settings on RME flat. 

As small as it is it responds very well to footers. 

Get the Denafrips Pontus ii 
Excellent Dac. I have Pontus with Iris DDC and using is2 connection.