Good dac to reproduce soprano vocals?

Hfl, why not simply rotate a few of the contenders in your pricerange through your system and hear for yourself. This would certainly include Steve's overdrive DAC, but MSB offers in house trial on their new analog DAC, and I'm sure there are others. In my experience, the range of opinions is so broad you really have to hear electronics in your own system to make an informed decision.

I personally either get stuff on trial, or even better, scout audiogon for a very good deal on a used piece that can be resold without loss if you don't like it. For the latest greatest digital the latter approach does not work, but if you want to try something like the perfectwave MKII or even a BADA II this is a viable approach.

Hfl, while not necessarily opera, I'm pretty sure female vocals in the high register are part of the vast majority of DAC evaluations. I personally always play some Rachell Ferrell (Jazz), who has a six octave range.

For what it is worth, the top of the line MBS stuff can handle what you are looking very well, but the pricetag may be prohibitive. I'm not sure how close their "budget" analog DAC comes to this level of performance.