DACs with a budget of $800

@Kalali
Yes, the little budget pre has served me well and I agree with you about tonal balance. However, I think that my room presents some problems with the speakers I use most (Spatial Hologram). My room its 12 ft x 19 feet and my front wall is the long wall due to room set up/floor plan of my home. I get great separation left to right and good height, I just have almost zero depth. Sure tweaking the speaker placement is a big deal, but even when the speakers are optimized in my room the sound stage really 2 dimensional and very forward. I have never had any tube gear before and am excited to see what it can do for a three dimensional sound stage. 

I will send out updates and impressions after I get it running next week.

Oh and BTW I will be moving the NAD 165 to the bedroom system (Maggie MMGs. stereo REL t-7's, and an anthem MCA 20 for power). 

Schiit used 

@erik_squires 
yes, +1 for the Schiit Gungnir Multiibit, can be bought used now. 
and remember that the Schiit price on their website is about 1/2 the price that it would be if it were sold in brick and mortar buildings-

Schiit sells direct to you, no middleman.

ben, in my experience, all things being equal, the biggest factor contributing to the soundstage depth is the distance of the speakers from the wall behind them, regardless of the speakers’ brand or model. With open baffles the affect is even more pronounced since they act as bi-polar transducers and create more sound pressure behind them when compared to typical box speakers. I personally don’t think the “electronics” will give you the depth you’re looking for. Other attributes maybe but not depth. 

kalali" the biggest factor contributing to the soundstage depth is the distance of the speakers from the wall behind them, regardless of the speakers’ brand or model. With open baffles the affect is even more pronounced since they act as bi-polar transducers"

This is completely wrong and reveals a profound ignorance of loudspeaker design and misunderstanding of their application, installation, and interaction with they're surroundings an "open baffle" speaker is not at all bipolar it would function as a dipole speaker which has characteristics and effects unique to dipolar designs and shares little to nothing in common with any bipolar speaker of which type several models do indeed exist.