I've had very good results with a very rare DAC, a GeorgeMark Audio from the early 2100s. It's a tube gain stage with volume control and an MSB DAC board built in with tube output stage. I drive it with Cambridge CDX drive running into two Monarchy anti jitter stages in series.
Previous to this I used a Melos preamp with built in DAC and a tube output. Again excellent performance. Tubes seem to make good DAC output stages.
Previous to this I used a Melos preamp with built in DAC and a tube output. Again excellent performance. Tubes seem to make good DAC output stages.