dac advice

Another in your price range that is worth a listen is the Simaudio Moon 100D. It's really nicely built and I've been very impressed with the improvement it made over a modded Beresford DAC for not much more money.

These are some great responses,Ilike what ckoffend had to say along with others ,what is your take on a old used Monarchy dac?

Centrance DacMini is great, as is the Burson Audio DA-160.

The W4S DAC 2 (and DAC1) didn't blow away everything mentioned above in my home/system. It's a very good DAC, but certainly not the be all, end all many taut it as.

With everything been said, do you see a trend? Seems like everyone's recommending what they bought. I recommended the Rega DAC, because it seems to fit what you're looking for (or at least I think it does), and I've compared it directly to many mentioned here and thought highly enough of it to buy it.

There's some very good sounding DACs mentioned here. My advice is to audition as many as you can and let your ears decide. More people will show up with more recommendations. Does that make choosing one any easier?

I recently got a listen to a Rega DAC (have been on the DAC fence myself) and also the D4S DAC2 and Dacmagic with a aftermarket power supply. I liked the W4S 2 the least and the Rega was the winner. System was Manley Snappers with a shrimp, Macmini and Oppo 83se with Vandy 3a's.
The W4S had a bit more detail, but also sounded cool and lean to us. The Rega really did sound like a TT, especially after my buddy fired up his old Thorens. The Dacmagic is quite a bargain.
I think the previous poster is right; most people like what they bought and few have heard multiple DAC's in their own system. My friend ended up buying Perfectwave that cost much more than the others and even with that he says the differences are pretty subtle. For myself I've made a 90% decision to go with the Rega, though I'm still looking at the DACmini.

Rob