Company headquarters and warranty repairs

A DAC is mostly made up of semiconductors and solid state components. The likelihood of any failure is slim. If it's going to break, it will do so out of the box. The brands you have chosen are all good, so go with the one that sound the best to you.

I wouldn’t go with Ayre as I heard they are in the middle of restructuring.  It may be a long while before the put out a new dac and isn’t their current dac a bit long in the tooth?  I could be 100% wrong on this but I remember reading something on them recently.   I hear great things about Mola Mola. Six Moons seems to love their gear. 

@deone add Bricasti to your list. Great sounding US made DACs. 

A lot of upgrades are software and can be done over the internet or via a flash drive

I just traded my UK DAC (DAVE) for a Polish DAC (Lampizator).  I've never sent a piece of equipment in for repair.

Jerry

I talked to the distributor for Mola Mola (GTT Audio) and they said their DACs need to go to the Netherlands but once they receive them they turn them around in one day.

I have two Ayre components and they are incredible to deal with. They do take about 1.5 weeks to turn around a repair (I’ve had one repair of a component I bought used). But after they do the repair they let it burn in for a couple of days and then test it again before sending it out.  So there is a perfectly excellent reason for taking a week+ for turnaround.

Given this I’ll audition all but unless the Mola Mola or Chord are improvements over Ayre, I’ll pick the Ayre.

are all

They are are quality brands and Chord and Mola Mola have US distributors and excellent reputations..  I have compared the Tambaqui and Dave, and I clearly chose the Tambaqui.  I trust my dealer to take care of me (GTT Audio).

I agree that at those prices I’d ensure each has some US-based repair facility.  If they don’t I’d cross it off the list immediately because overseas shipping is very expensive these days, and who needs that when there are plenty of excellent DACs that can be serviced here?

I'd buy the Dac that sounded best and those are all 3 pretty prominent brands I'm sure all 3 have some sort of US service arrangement. You can find this out pretty easily if you search.

I'd buy US made unless they offer repairs and replacements in the US, and I would make some calls to verify in advance.  Just my opinion...

It has been my past experience with electronics that don't have moving parts that if there's something wrong the problem will surface immediately and if it doesn't it should last for many years to come.

Disclaimer:  I have absolutely nothing against foreign made goods as they are often better than US made, and I own many, including all my cars, but I also do my homework in advance, just in case something goes wrong!