I had the Gustard R26 Ladder DAC . I replaced my streamer with the Eversolo A8 which has the AK 4499 Velvet chipset. I ended up selling the Gustard because I like the sound of the Ak 4499 better. Maybe just the implementation with the streamer, preamp, DAC combo in this unit
If I was buyng a stand alone DAC, I would seriously consider the Gishelli models which come with the AK Velvet 4499 chipset and XLR outputs. Another option is the SMSL E70 (I think) with the AK4499 chipset and XLR outputs to your amp