Here's another tip, look up the chip the DAC uses, if it cost under $10, you should pay at most $500 for it. Eg: Burr-Brown, Sabre, AKM. You can get the same sound out of consumer AV receiver/processors (if you want XLR) for far cheaper, plus you can go multichannel processing.
Onkyo and Marantz are just so far ahead of DACs in terms of sound quality and bang for the bucks.
Also, avoid all FPGA DACs, those simply sound incorrect. Maybe they'll fix it in 10 years with firmware upgrades, but you'll be able to buy them dirt cheap by then.
If you want things to sound better, invest in balanced power and a reclocker. Once you got those 2, every DAC based off of $1-$10 chips sounds the same.
Onkyo and Marantz are just so far ahead of DACs in terms of sound quality and bang for the bucks.
Also, avoid all FPGA DACs, those simply sound incorrect. Maybe they'll fix it in 10 years with firmware upgrades, but you'll be able to buy them dirt cheap by then.
If you want things to sound better, invest in balanced power and a reclocker. Once you got those 2, every DAC based off of $1-$10 chips sounds the same.