$1300-1500 DAC

I insist, get the best combination of digital gear you can pay and forget about sample rates, MQA, etc. At least for at the begining. 

For me the correct gear is MUCH more important. A good digital chain playing PCM 44.1 will sound MUCH better than a mediocre one playing hi-res.

For instance, in my case, replacing the WiFi connection with a 10 bucks Cat8 Ethernet cable plus a 20 bucks used  Cisco Ethernet Switch (a Gigabit one) had more impact in sound than changing sample rates and formats. 

+1 for the Schiit Gungnir Multibit

Another vote for the Benchmark Dac3. I might even know of one going up for sale soon.

I have the NAD M51 in my system and it sounds beautiful, very smooth.  I would say the only thing I can fault with it is that is does not do MQA.  It's not that it matters much but I feel NAD should be able to add the feature via firmware update since all of the newer dacs from the seem to support MQA.  Tidal Masters streams do however sound terrific anyway.  I also use mine as a preamp connected directly to a NAD C272 power amp.  Works great.  The volume control is done via 35 bit DSP in a way that you can lower the volume to -66db (almost inaudiable) before truncating the signal.  Not selling mine anytime soon.

You could save yourself $1100 and try the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital. It is indeed competitive with many of the others mentioned. Pro-Ject knows what they're doing when it comes to digital, more so than their analog ventures. Many online dealers (including Amazon) offer this unit with a satisfaction guarantee and it'd be very inexpensive to ship, thus nothing to lose in trying one.