I'll second the recommendation of the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital. I have one in my office and think it's exceptional for the $399 price. I've compared it to the Bel Canto DAC 3 in my main system and it's close. It's also a very good preamp and headphone amp and won an EISA Best Product of the Year award for 2017-2018.
Best DAC for my system?
Thinking I would like to add an outboard DAC to my system. I have Forte IIIs, McIntosh MC2105, McIntosh MX119 and I use a Bluesound Node2 for streaming. What would be best options in the $500 range? Or do I need to spend more on the DAC to make enough improvement over the Node2 DAC? Thanks....