Non-Delta Sigma DAC in £800-£1200 range options?

Soekris and Denafrips comes to mind.

What is your "taste/preference"? That would be helpful information.

The Bifrost is very good. I had one for a while, but ended up letting it go as it had a little bit of a "digital edge" to it. I prefer more neutral and "analog sounding". The MHDT Labs Orchid is just above your price range. A little less detailed, a little easier to listen to.

My taste is toward neutral. 

soekris is neutral, excellent for the $

I never found my Gumby rolled off on the top. it is truly a great DAC. one of the more musical ones I've owned. and better then the one in my $6.5k Aurender A10 streamer DAC. Its single ended and balanced out as well. 

Musician Pegasus R2R DAC is very neutral and at US$1100 is a great value.  Next step would be to get a DDC to take advantage of the i2S input.  Best of luck. 

Thanks guys; some food for thought there. 

@soix thanks for that. I haven't paid much attention to DDCs and the I2S cables. What are the advantages of these? 

Have you considered a Chord Qutest for your price range? It is neutral sounding.

Edit to add a review link that describes the neutrality of it's sound: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/chord-electronics-qutest-dac/

@painter24 In most cases (Holo DACs being one exception where USB is the superior input) an i2S connection via an HDMI cable as short as possible produces significant improvements over SPDIF.  AES/EBU seems to be more on par with i2S, but it’s best to check with your DAC’s manufacturer which input provides the best sound quality.  Also, important to note there is no established standard for i2S pin configuration so you need to check that a given DDC will work with your specific DAC.  I just bought a used Denafrips Iris to run i2S into my Pegasus DAC and will report back with my impressions once I get it hooked up if anyone here is interested. 

@soix thanks for the info, much appreciated. I would definitely be interested in your findings with the Iris/Pegasus pairing, as the Pegasus a sure contender 👍

@soix Hi Soix, were you able to try out the Iris with your Pegasus yet? 

@painter24 Unfortunately no but will report back as soon as I do. 

@soix Thanks Soix, look forward to your findings