What the Best Dac have you heard or owned. How could you tell it was that good.

The best DAC i have owned is the one I am currently using, the Esoteric D-05. I auditioned several DAC's last year to come to a decision. Among them was the Benchmark, the Bryston BDA3, my old EAD 3000Mk3, a Sim Audio ( don't remember the number), and a ARC DAC8. What i really like about the Esoteric, besides the build quality, is that it uses dual mono DAC chips, and this seems to be where it has an advantage over the other DAC's I heard.

@calvinj   I have heard the Esoteric N01XD, but not in my system. I was also very impressed by it. I am a BIG fan of Esoteric gear. 

@calvinj   I did notice that the upstream gear has a lot to do with the ultimate SQ. In my case, I use a Esoteric SACD player as a stand alone transport. If the server or transport is not that synergistic with the DAC, this can have an impact on the SQ. It does seem that Esoteric DAC's work best with upstream Esoteric transports/servers. Although I have heard some great sound from a Esoteric DAC and a Aurender server.