DAC for Bricasti Design M5 Network Player

You could also try the 30 day trial of the RME ADI 2 FS dac from Sweetwater with your M5.  It is ~1/5 the cost and is crazy good for the money.  I run it balanced into my Sim 740p preamp.   If you find it underwhelming simply return it.   I sold my M3 with MDx to try some cheaper options and for now have ended up with the RME as my 30 day return just expired.   Unlike you, my weak link may be my streamer (I use a raspberry pi based spdif streamer).  The M3 is a great dac and the folks at Bricasti told me the integrated Ethernet streamer was the best sounding interface, so based on that feedback and others from these forums, I’m betting I didn’t hear the M3 at its best.    But still, I am amazed at how good the RME sounds in my system after having two previous DACs with 4 to 5x the MSRP. 
Cheers

Yea, it had a Mar 2020 ship date.  I considered it, but I was told it is $1500 if you don’t have it, so the $1000 seems to be when buying new.  That is my fault for not realizing the difference when I purchased it without the streamer.   Since I found the M3 to be just a little better than my 5 yr old SimAudio DAC I didn’t want to risk the extra $1500 not knowing what the improvement would be like.  
I was thinking spending $1500 on a used M5 might also bump the performance of my previous DAC up as well, keeping the delta about the same.

Anyhow, both the Sim and Bricasti DACs have been sold and I’ll stick with the RME for now.   I’m not sure where to go from here but may just pocket the change and enjoy the RME until something else catches my eye.    I’m driving distance to a Bricasti dealer so if I get a chance to hear the M3 with the streamer vs my spdif RME setup and it blows me away, I could jump back in.   The RME fits in my hand so it will be easy to bring it along to a dealer for comparisons :)