Good suggestions all around, but at the end of the day, the OP would do good to actually audition something in his system, live with it a few days, then decide. No matter how good something sounds in one person's system and room, it may sound worse (or better) to them.
I hope you could simply ask to borrow the Meitner for a few days (they might ask for a deposit) from the seller. Kick the tires so to speak. Good luck!
Whether someone spends $300, $3000, or $10,000 on a DAC is not my business.
Life is short. Do what makes you happy. But know that as you go up the food chain you ARE doing socially good things such as helping people stay employed, helping engineers push the level of performance, and helping them pay their bills, and yes, make charitable contributions. God forbid we ever live in a country where the government places limits on what you think you want and can buy, otherwise we'd all be driving Chevy Sparks, not that there is anything wrong with one.
DAC’s
Hello, curious on everyone’s thoughts. I’m still building my system. I came across a really good deal on a Meitner MA3 dac. It’s from an authorized dealer and they offered to sell me one NIB for 7k. I have read and read about dacs and I am getting tired. Haha. I really like the Denafrips Terminator 2, Holo and the lumin T3 being the cheapest of them all. Once I factor in a streamer I am already close or over the 7k. Also I don’t need a dac for anything other then just streaming. Thank you