DAC Choices - $5,000 to $7,000

@grannyring , I heard those same comments about the Morpheus relative to the Pavane and Adagio, although the reviewers did not seem to think so.  I sometimes wonder about reviews but have previously found Srajan at 6moons to be reliable and mostly aligned with what I hear.
I plan to reach out to Ben and see where that leads me.

Keep in mind Ben has never claimed his past dacs were upgradable.  He has really separated out the various parts of the Evo dac so they can be swapped out for new boards and/or parts. Look closely at the pics to see this. 

I personally upgraded my Mystique 3 to an Evo by upgrading chokes, USB card, wiring, opamps, grounding and  shielding. It was a royal pain in the rear.  Very difficult and a darn near impossible task. After seeing what he did to change that in the Evo it is a completely different task and upgrading will be much easier. 

Mitch

You say you like the natural sound of R2R DACs and you are looking for one in the $5K - $7K range?
You have exactly that in the Adagio.
I have the Pavane, same as the Adagio w/out the volume control.

I had the Sonnet Morpheus for a while and A/B it with the Pavane feeding both with a Metrum Ambre streamer.
Very close but the Morpheus had a little more meat on the bones and more of a center image focus.
It's only $3500 because it uses a less expensive case than the Metrum's.

BTW. Sonnet is Metrum's former owner/engineers current company. The Morpheus is Cees Ruetenburg next version of his R2R design found in your Adagio and my Pavane.
I'll tell you he is currently working on the next design which is supposed to be a big step up.
FWIW.

Not sure what difference you're looking for. OCD HiFi channel guy on you tube does a DAC shootout where you can hear the same tracks through the Adagio and the Terminator as well as several others. Rockna might be one if I remember correctly.

Happy hunting

I went from an Audio Mirror Tubadour III SE DAC to a PS Audio DirectStream DAC.  While the Tubadour is a very, very good DAC, the DirectStream DAC sounds closer to my analog rig; it is also smoother with more detail.  

@rushfan71 , this is why it is so important to hear stuff for yourself.  Although you and a couple of reviewers indicate the Morpheus may have a touch more meat on the bones than the Adagio or Pavane, I have spoken with several others who have indicated they hear very little if any difference between the Morpheus and the Adagio.  I have heard from a couple of people, and from Granny's post below, that the Morpheus is thin sounding, and from one industry insider who recommends using a preamp or buffer with either the Morpheus or the two top Metrum DACs. 
My personal finding with both the Pavane and Adagio (both of which I have owned) is that they have good tone and detail but need a preamp or buffer to achieve the level of body I enjoy. I am hoping to find something with a similar level of tone, detail, and naturalness, but with a bit more body and weight.  It seems the Bricasti M3, Holo May KTE, and Mojo Mystique may provide this and also possibly the Rockna Wavelight and Terminator.