Preamp Choice... a hard call for me.

capt

’Denon DVD 2900 that has served me well ...’

I felt the same way about my highly modified but ancient Pioneer D 65, stable platter.The laser died. I contacted Pioneer, but  they don’t make parts anymore. I researched what I could afford and came across a Marantz HD CD 1. It blows away the Pioneer. I use it as a transport now using coax cable between it and my Audio Alchemy DAC/Pre.

I owned the Parasound P3 and P5. I hope the P 6 is a huge upgrade

@aberyclark 
 
One thing to take in mind, if still using a pre-amp, then the analog inputs need to be taken into question, as maybe they aren’t clean, so that even the best DAC in the world can’t sound better than the internal DAC was the analog section of the preamp is limiting the quality.

Consider the Sutherland Engineering N1.   https://sutherlandengineering.com/products/n1/
Amazing performance and elegant too!

A couple of DAC's you could consider. At the Budget end the Topping D-50 DAC at around $249. At the upper end the RME ADI-2 DAC. Also has balanced out and has an excellent headphone output. Supports both standard over ear and IEM head phones. Made by RMe a German Pro audio company. $1099

I have a weird but perhaps useful suggestion. Just  find out what can REALLY can outperform your preamp (W/O any DAC) regardless of the cost, just so you know what is possible. Then ask yourself what your speakers are capable of reproducing. Your amplifier choice will also be critical. Otherwise you may, as I found out- trying to get a source and a preamp (and last of all some good cables) to "come up to" the level of resolution of your speakers. That is the beauty (and unfortunately the expense) of separates. I went through too many upgrades (although I had some fun doing it) to get my speakers to sound their best. But my ears led the way- sometimes I heard good things happening and sometimes I really didn't.