Recommendations on a Warm Sounding DAC under $1100.00

Save the money and look toward a more expensive DAC.

this in an of itself is bad advice

a well chosen dac (especially used) at ~$1000 can significantly outperform a mediocre $2000+ dac

there is a lot of innovation in this space, especially from chinese and eastern european makers... performance at lower price points (around a grand or less) is better than it has ever been

that said, to some of the other posts above, i recently bought and tried a laiv mu-dac and i was not impressed with it sonically (as nice built as it is) -- i felt the sound was meh, got rid of it in less than a week

Please disregard the prior comment.

Its "good advice" if it saves you the trouble and extra expense of making the same mistake many on this forum have made. Sure, there are several good sounding budget DACs out there. You take the chance on the lateral move and then, after a time, you decide on an upgrade. Then you may risk doubling the amount for a DAC that you may settle for. How can this be "bad advice"?

Check out Yggdrasil, Direct Stream, Musetec, or Bryston BDA. All used. 

op

suggest you get this and don’t look back (assuming you are in the us)

this one

it will outperform most other units mentioned in this thread, even the higher priced ones lol

if you get it and don’t like it, contact me, i will buy it from you :)

My suggestion is to look above the $2000 range

As the old saying goes, you are certainly free with other people's money!  The OP stated his budget.  That's like someone looking for a $30K car and being belittled because they aren't considering $60K-plus models. 

I have had my Denafrips Pontus II DAC 5 years and it sounds superb using the I2S connection to my Jay’s Audio transport. You may be able to find a used Pontus in your price range. A new Denafrips Ares 15 sells for $1199 if you can stretch your budget a bit. Both are R2R ladder DACS which tend to sound warmer and smoother compared to delta-sigma DACS, and both have I2S connections. That said, I2S compatibility is a crapshoot and I would check with Denafrips prior to making a purchase.