Best DAC?

@ geleary123: Here it is: the Khadas Tone Board KTB DAC! $90! You supply the case and 5 volt DC power supply. It has near SOTA specs! Khadas also has a complete DAC for $199 for those not into DIY.

I own s KTB in a custom case!

erastof, I know that you asked for the best DAC up to $5,000. My personal favorite is the Chord Hugo TT2 which I have in my headphone system now. Yes it does retail at $5,495, but I was able to get mine for a very good price, and they are widely available at a discount if one only takes the time to investigate. The strength of the TT2 is in the amount of detail retrieval it achieves and in the musicality of how this DAC sounds when compared to other products at a similar price pont. 

Denafrips Terminator 
or
Chord Hugo TT

on a somewhat more serious note i would point out that primary hp listeners will value different qualities and attributes of various dacs rather differently than those using conventional systems with speakers in space trying to produce a palpable stereo image and dealing with room interactions

once again, poster who ask, and posters who reply, without proper contextual information about the listening conditions and system information are pretty much wasting bandwidth