Best DAC?


Recommended DAC up to $5000.  Key sonic characteristics? Thank you!
erastof
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. 
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
The OP needs to remedy the paucity of his system solution information. Found this in  a 12/20 posting
"My PS Audio system is the following: PerfectWave DS DAC, Stellar 1200 amplifiers, Direct Stream Power Plant 12, AudioArt interconnects and speaker cables, Triode Labs and Essence Reference II (Essential Sound Products) power cables. My system is located in my master room (crazy location-just moved to a small apartment). I mostly listen to jazz (trios quartets), acoustic music (piano and guitar) and vocals. My speakers sound great (they are close to the rear wall-14"). Will like to improve the mids, soundstage and deeper tighter bass"
Given the system described, his DAC is unlikely to be an issue butthe digital source solution is unnamed and quite often not on par withthe PS Audio gear. Would expect to see an Aurender, Innuos or Antipodes server in use before thinking about a next DAC.