What's the greatest bargain in DAC's these days?

Hi Rebbi - good luck in your search. Can't give you a direct comparison vs all your options. Previously I was using a Gen 1 V-DAC w/V-Link. I went to a Gungnir with V-Link 192. I was playing some CDs I'd copied to hard drive yesterday and was marveling at the sound...especially as just the day before my lengthy listening session was to vinyl. The Gungnir/V-Link/MBA combo sounded great...very mellow and full in what to me resembles what I like from vinyl "sound". Worth noting is I purchased a USB cable with split power/signal runs and use this from MBA into V-Link. ALSO - have recently switched to Morrow Audio MA4s ICs (w/Eichmann Silver RCAs) going from Gungnir to pre-amp. Not saying you'd go wrong with your other options but the V-Link/Gungnir combo is working for me. As someone else will undoubtedly say (I'm sure you know this) best way to find what works for you is to audition.

Yamamoto YDA-02. $350 plus $30 shipping from 2Juki. It only plays up to 96kHz, no dsd. It only has a usb input.

I bought one a couple months ago. I'm using it with a Mac Mini. It is my first foray into computer audio. I have no other experience with any other dac, so take this with a grain of salt. That said, I find the YDA-02 to be imminently listenable, plenty detailed but not harsh at all. It is engaging and very easy to listen to for hours at a time.

It sounds a little less "you are there" than my Sony XS5400ES cd/sacd player, but the the YDA-02 is a great value I think at $350. I think the YDA-02 can be tweaked to sound even better, perhaps by using an outboard linear power supply like the TeraDak or using something like the MF V-Link converter like you have.

Ross Martin, you can get a 8 channel DAC for $800. Top of the line chip too.