Bel Canto DAC 2 or Ikemi?

I haven't heard the two side by side but my sense is that the Ikemi is the better unit. Although Bel Canto has suggested that transports don't matter that much they DO make very audible differences through the DAC2. With a great transport and digital cable MAYBE the two are in the same class. I'm not knocking the DAC2 which I really like for the money.
I would suggest that you give a listen to the Ayre CX-7 which I bought in preference to the Ikemi. If the ARC unit you auditioned was the CD3 then I'm somewhat surprised that you preferred the Ikemi. I would also give a listen to the Audio Note and Wadia products before spending my money.

Joyelyse, I'd make the drive to hear the Audio Note products.
They are non-oversampling, no digital filter, tube output designs and are widely praised for their musicality. Try to listen to the AN-CD3.1x CDP ($2650.00) and if you can possibly consider the financial stretch the AN-DAC2.1x Balanced ($4K).

The Vecteur D2.2 ($1490) gets very good reviews (I have not heard it). The caveat is that the importer(there are very few dealers), Mutine, seems to be either an arrogant jerk or hopelessly disorganized or both. Aside from the Vecteur well regarded transports for <$2K are a very scarce commodity. Hopefully someone else will have a better suggestion.
For what it is worth I really like the Stealth Varidig digital cable.