Higher End DACs


I am looking for a DAC (potentially streamer&DAC) to be paired in a mcintosh system (c1100/611). Its my first foray into digital streaming and I have no need for a CD player.

I see a lot of love for Esoteric, however, most seems to be around their transports? Are they not as renowned for pure digital streaming and/or standalone DACs? I see DCS (for instance) often referenced for standalone DACs - how does Esoteric compare?
ufguy73
DAC it OUT held last August in Scottsdale, Arizona blind tested 10 DACS.
See review at AZAVCLUB.com
I would completely agree with mike that many dacs today are pretty
good. No mention of the Denafrips Terminator above. Anyone have one?
The Chinese seem to be kicking arse and taking numbers in the
hifi world these days from a value perspective.

I would also recomend looking at the dCS Bartok. I just upgraded to one from the Chord Hugo TT2. We actually were able to do listening tests in my home with my Magico S1MKII. We compared the Chord Dave and mScaler, Bartok, and fully upgraded MSB premire stack. The MSB and Bartok was better to us than the Chord stack by a decent margain. They were more full bodied and did not give up any detail while presenting a larger more realistic soundstage. 

The MSB and Bartok we pretty close together. The MSB had a bit sweeter top end and the imaging was a bit more diffuse ina good way. The MSB also clocked in at over $35k with the network module and the rest of the upgrades. So that should be taken into account. For my money the Bartok is the better value of the three the Dave and mscaler are over $16k. 

Unless you have headphones that aren't hard to drive I would go with the Bartok without the amp. I prefer an external headphone amp with my abyss. 
Extreme. I will not get in the argument about overkill, but

Custom Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 OS, Roon and Jplay playback software

That's the opposite of future proof. Custom mods of OSs and Roon is a VERY BAD idea. Sooner or later you'll get stuck with unsupported, incompatible SW. Basically you are choosing to depend on a very small developer group opposed to a very large one; a very small user base against a huge one. Bad Idea.
As mentioned above, try Lampizator. They have a range but the Golden Gate 2 might be best for your price point. Often come out on top on DAC shootout forum threads.