DAC recommendations

I currently own (and love) a Denafrips Pontus II DAC with a Denafrips Iris DDC, USB into the Iris and I2S from the Iris to the Pontus II. I compared this setup to the Venus II, and preferred the Pontus/Iris pairing. But that depends on your tastes. The sound is similar to the Musician Aquarius (also a great DAC) which is somewhere between the Pontus and Venus

The Pontus II combo is a warmer richer sound, but still with great soundstage width/depth and instrument separation. Sound is clean, great impact, forgiving on recordings, and not at all sibilant or unforgiving The Venus is more neutral and detailed, which means it will give you what the recording provides......good and bad. To me then sound signature is similar to a Chord Qutest, which I found to be a little too unforgiving and fatiguing for long listening sessions.

The Pontus II and Iris pairing is about $2,400 and the Venus II is about $3,100.....unfortunately Denafrips does not have a trial period, so recreating that comparison is difficult in your home. The Musician Aquarius is about $2,700.

Best of luck

I know that this is out of your price range but I love my MSB Discrete DAC with Premier Power Supply, with the Renderer module.  If you can find one, the MSB Analog DAC used is in your price range and I thought that the soundstage was phenomenal -- better in some respects than the Discrete.

I believe the new PS Audio DSD MKII will meet all your criterion.  It is the most natural sounding DAC I have had in my system.  Very natural sounding, large well defined sound stage (side to side and front and back)  that extends quite a bit beyond my speakers and for me is right in the goldilocks zone.  Not too analytical but full of incredible detail.  Also, because of the galvanic isolation, any noise is as far as I can tell non-existent and since it has FPGA, the unit can evolve.  It is a DAC you can listen to for hours and not get fatigued.  I believe they let you do a 30 day trial and all you do is pay shipping.  As you can see by the list below I am a PS fan but I have had the opportunity to try out lots of gear and I think the PS products give you a great bang for the buck.  

• PS Audio SACD Player
• Pass XP-32 Pre
• PS Audio DSD MKII
• BHK Amps
• Theil 3.7 speakers
• 2 Rel S/5 SHO Subs
• PS Audio P-20 Power Conditioner
• Cardas Clear Reflection Interconnects
• Audioquest Hurricane Power Cords
• Nordost Tyr II Speaker Cables
• VPI MKIII TT 

Thank you vthokie83. I am real tempted with the Venus 2 or Terminator 2. Like you mentioned, the accuracy of playing the recording can be good or bad depending on the recording. Sometimes the Topping can be too revealing. I have noticed Tidal’s Master recordings seem to take that edge off of harsh recordings. But, limited to only 4 or 5 hours of listening yesterday. I’m curious to see how the tube upgrade will affect the sound. Warm and clear sounding would be optimal. The cheap tubes it came with lack clarity. I will find out tomorrow. 🙏

You do not need a better DAC.