I’ve been looking at the Gustard R26 as a dac upgrade that has an integrated streamer. Slightly more than your budget but likely worth it.
Upgrade Internal DAC of Node or go with Atoll ST120.
Looking at upgrading to a external DAC for my Bluesound Node or picking up a all in one streamer/dac like the Atoll MS120 or ST200 or another brand all together. My price for all in one would be around $1500 and DAC only would be $1000. I stream via Qobuz. Big question would be what option between these two would sound best.