Is there anything other than a Benchmark DAC?

In your price range: ifi PRO iDSD Signature is a Swiss Army knife with a great headphone amp and by-passable tube stage.

I run a T+A DAC 200 on my main system and the iFi Pro iDSD in my office rig. Love it/

Instead of a tube DAC, there is something organic about an R2R DAC. I've had a Denafrips Terminator 2 for the last three years and for me it's been a game changer! The rest of my systems far out classes in price but having a really good source is the cornerstone of any good system. Upgrading the source to Aurender N100, good power cables and interconnects and finally isolation all made significant improvements. With the T2 and the rest of the system it produces a wide and deep soundstage with tons of detail while still sounding organic (non-digital). My Sopra 2s completely disappear and I'm just pulled into the music - very engaging. 

There are a lot of great options out there and if you're looking for something "different", this may be one of them without spending $10k. 

Good luck and I'm interested to hear which direction you go. 

@vdotman "Geshelli Labs Dayzee. You have to wait to get one, *ut it’s worth the wait!" did you hear one at a show or get a preview unit?

I have their JNOG2 socketed, fully kitted. It's fine and good value, but frankly didn't beat the DAC in my EversoloDMP.  Its  Works better than what's in my Marantz HT pre/pro, which is 13+ yrs old... but once I got the DMP and a/b'd that vs. the Gheseli in the signal chain, I pulled it.   And the JNOG was not as good as any of the 3 current generation DACs/Pre's in my basement now (Moon/Sim390:~$6500, Wandla:$3900, T+Adac200:$8k+).  Testing at home side by side with a known room, speakers and amps you're familiar with and can control variables helps determine what will work 'for you' and 'in your system'.

@captelee "I run a T+A DAC 200 on my main system..."  out of the 3 this week, noted above, this is the one I kept turning to, and will be buying this weekend.  Coming from a wonderful BAT balanced preamp and modest <$1k dac (eversolo, gheselli, or the babyfacePro DAC that came with my Bacch4mac setup) all 3 new ones I tested at home this week were an upgrade in detail, attack, place and pace..  The Moon was pleasant, musical, friendly, solid. The wandla, a great value that also sounded neutral, not soft, and the Hypsos external power supply with the variable voltage + it's Signalyst filters were very fun to tweak.  But I kept going back to the T+A as the most honest of the triplet. Of the 3 I felt this was the one stretching the rest of my gear (a factor I look for when I get new kit) and was very, very revealing and yet not harsh (bez2 filter was used most) all this detail didn't get in the way of me enjoying the music. My notes: "front row seat" with the dac200... and with Bacch all 3 had identical soundstage and imaging, when Bacch was engaged (i made a new bacch profile ('bin' setting) for each dac+pre and would switch between Bacch profiles them when swapping dac+pre's and a/b with and without bacch (there's a bypass of course) when on a given dac+pre.

So if it wasn't for the 1024DSD future proofing and 2 separate DAC chains in the T+A, and the ladder gain, and all I wanted was a compact value based software upgradable DAC+Pre to let Bacch do it's thing, the Wandla would have won as it was no slouch at all**. If I only had $8k and still needed speakers or amps, then the wandla, and shopping for those wit the savings. but for now this dac+pre was the 'last piece of my current puzzle' so the budget went to T+A.

**wandla also had several adjustable filters, with more coming, HT passthrough (line in analog that will pass L+R from a pre/pro) also AES/EBU, usb and even i2s (hdmi port format) and also a balanced and isolated analog section, and the dedicated power supply (which can power a 2nd asset as well) was a great match.  hence why I recommended it above to OP.

I mate my DAC3B with the Benchmark AHB2 amp and a Conrad_Johnson tube preamp. Sound is smooth as silk and finely detailed. No screeching highs, which I could never put up with.

@demich I went with the dCS Bartok 2.0 (used). It is the Bartok version before the apex. I should get it next week. Weiss 501 was a close second, but I thought there would be too much brightness when using it with my B&W 804 D4s.