Short list of dacs for CEC TL-2X

Current dac is an Alpha 16/44 & a pair of NOS tubes, like the sound, but wondering about more openess, naturalness, slam and laid-back qualities. Analytical, more detail, upfront presentations are not wanted here. Sutts, Rcprince, Sean, you other guys, I know you're out there, any after thoughts ? Are those other dacs worth considering or just more $$$ ?

Rcprince, can I still get a non-transformer-coupled version from Jerry ? I remembered he had something to do with the Jadis dacs, but had no clue about the Thor dacs.
I posted another thread on the DCC2 from Meitner a couple weeks back, but I guess it's a little too early in the game to get a handle on it, or that Zanden 5000 from Japan.
BTW, thanks for the invite, I live in (northern OH.), not too far away.

Rcprince and Sutts, you guys are great, always helpful, insightful and fun to read !! Thankyou, and the other three Goners, Essentialaudio, Hi5harry and Platsolos.

Hi Sutts, actually my moniker was "thought about" before I had any idea Mazda was even going to bring their "own" into existance. Really when I saw the first ad for one, I was shocked, to say the least, a couple other people asked me your same question, so I guess I can call mine a "non-factory" prototype. My 91 started life as a clean, humble, hi-revving, no low torque automatic, 45K on the odometer.
Little by little, the rotary motor began to rear it's ulgy head. It began to be ever increasingly hard to start, like a "flooded condition." I ignored it as a somewhat "typical nature of the beast" and decided to drive it to my buddies muffler shop for some new tailpipes.
Well, that's where it died, on their rack, no-start ever again. So I hiked the motor and tranny out, went to Granny's Speed Shop web and got real excited. Talked to Grant, got the imfo I needed and bought a Chevy 350 V8 and an overdrive auto trans from a Monte Carlo SS. I didn't install the swap kit yet, I have a couple other finances pending, "hospital bills" yeah. Sorry to take this post way off track, but hell it's my thread !!