Best Bang for your Buck DAC ?

while all being very good sounding units, the rme adi2 and musical paradise are at opposite ends of the spectrum:

rme is crystal clear, fast sounding, shimmery, slightly mechanical, relatively centralized, flat narrow sound stage -- probably a very honest representation of the digital signal being portrayed

otoh, musical paradise unit is ’enriched’ in the midrange and midbass, slightly rolled on the top and extreme bottom, soundstage ’expanded’ and deepened via tube output stage, more perceived coherence top to bottom

so to use again the very apt analogy by john darko the reviewer -- ’skim milk vs full fat’

schiit gungnir mb is smack in the middle in terms of tonality but with nice imaging (imaging is the rme’s achilles heel imo, not an issue for hp listeners of course)... gungnir issue which led me to move on is there is prominent relay clicking between tracks, if you change source or different bitrates, irritated me

hope this helps those trying to make a choice

Very happy with my Rega DACr... under a grand and maybe around $450ish for a good used piece. Fabulous build quality and plays great with any electronics I throw at it. 

Find out how long before Soekris Dac's are in stock

A  Khadas Tone Board DAC with a linear power supply which bypasses the USB power supply. This is the critical step as the USB power is noisy. With a LPS it competes favorably with a $1500 PS Audio DAC.

Hello Again, ngiordano!  I just took delivery of the Pro-Ject  Pre Box S2 Digital and it beats my SMSL M500 by a significant margin. It's getting blown out by several on-line outfits for $400. It came out in 2017 and has gotten good reviews consistently. It does not accept analog inputs, but it has a headphone amp and a volume control. It is very tiny, smaller than a big hamberger bun! Sounds great! Be sure to use a good USB cable. USB cables are critical. Happy Listening!