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

When I went to upgrade my dac I listened and demoed in my system as much as I could. After narrowing it down to the MSB Reference with separate power supply and the Nagra Tube Dac with separate power supply I ended up purchasing the Nagra. If your budget allows, I highly recommend a unit with a separate power supply.  You will notice a much cleaner sound with more quiet background in my opinion. Love them both but felt like the Nagra did a much better job of making the music uncolored and sounding like the actual instruments are in my room.

@calvinj 

I own the Grimm MU1as my streamer and who is also a Nagra dealer.  You may actually want to demo the new MU2 which is a dac/streamer/roon endpoint all in one.  I run Roon through my whole house via the MU! and it is flawless.  Having worked at Phillips in my prior life, the guys from the Netherlands were some of the original team that worked with Sony on the cd player originally.  So, these guys really "get it".  There was a recent article/review on the MU2 that was outstanding so it is worth a look it.  I'm not sure if Grimm is going to be at Axpona but I'm sure one of their dealers will be.  Keep me posted on your progress and let me know what you decide to get.