erastof, I know that you asked for the best DAC up to $5,000. My personal favorite is the Chord Hugo TT2 which I have in my headphone system now. Yes it does retail at $5,495, but I was able to get mine for a very good price, and they are widely available at a discount if one only takes the time to investigate. The strength of the TT2 is in the amount of detail retrieval it achieves and in the musicality of how this DAC sounds when compared to other products at a similar price pont.
