What the Best Dac have you heard or owned. How could you tell it was that good.

Best DAC I’ve heard in my system was an EMM Labs DV2, but I didn’t prefer it over a Bricasti M1 SE. 

Horses for courses. 

Denafrips Terminator II. Upgraded from their Venus II. Also using Iris DDC for USB.

I know it is good since it resolves details I haven't been able to distinguish before. Particularly in low regions. I can clear hear bass player taking several different notes in fast succession rather than just one pick or several smeared one over another. 

@calvinj  I finally gotten around to this thread. I have enjoyed the many post that have focused on your original question, which to me did not seem structured to a price point. 

The best DAC that i have heard is the one I currently have in my system, an Audio Mirror Tubadour III. It provides a smooth, detailed, harmonically rich presentation at a price point commensurate to my system. 

@mesch I did this so that many people would read it and depending on what price point you can afford they would all get suggestions.  My system is pretty much on the higher end. So I typically go towards certain ones because of where my system is at but I will soon do a smaller back up system. So lower price points will be in that one but I still want good performance. 

@calvinj

Yes, the Esoteric N01XD SE is amazing.  I upgraded from the prior XD.  I would rank it up there with the $40k DSC model.