A DAC that can make digital sound analog?

Some people who make inquiries about analog have lots of money to spend, I say to those people "Have fun"; but when someone comes up with a 1K budget; I say keep your money in your pocket until it adds up to 3K; that's my advice.

@ brettmcee

I have a serious suspicion that frequencies above 20kHz and below 20kHz are more detrimental than beneficial to audio reproduction.

I beg to differ, esp above 20kHz; the sense of space, clarity, and "smoothness" are directly influenced by frequencies in the upper regions. IMO it is redbook’s brick wall at 22kHz that makes it sound "harsh" rather than "crispy", "tiring", "truncated", etc. OTOH, hi-rez digital playback can sound very good—IF the original recording is comparably hi-rez, of course!
It’s just the same with vinyl: many of the better vinyls out there have content above 30-40kHz. The sonic result is, they sound "pleasant, smooth, enjoyable, real..." etc; in other words, vinyl was higher rez than much of the content we get nowadays!

@gregm http://v2.stereotimes.com/post/the-ortho-spectrum-analogue-reconstructor

I am speaking more of inaudible frequencies provided by digital means.

I am using the Ortho Spectrum AR-2000 now (see the link above). It has brought my digital much much closer to tape.

Perhaps the highest end marantz and ps audio system are the ticket for you? (SA-10; SA-KI Ruby; DirectStream). These upsample everything to DSD and output a 1-bit signal - the idea being a “digital-version” of an “analog” signal. I have the Ruby and only listen to vinyl for the novelty of playing my dad’s records.