A moderate priced dac

For around $1100-1400 you should be able to find a used Exogal Comet Plus. That's a great sounding DAC, from the founders of Wadia, that retails for over $3k. Fantastic sounding DAC.

https://benchmarkmedia.com/products/benchmark-dac3-b-digital-to-analog-audio-converter   (new $1700)

This one does not have volume control or headphone. You can go up the line for those features but the sound quality is the same.

I owned the more expensive one with the volume and headphone. It was detailed and not colored. However, I never had any fatigue listening to it all day while I worked. I am considering re-buying the $1700 version for a bedroom system / backup.

Loving my Tubadour also.It sounds it's best with good shielded cables I've found.
Some of the older components still sound great no doubt,but after several years of faithful service parts begin to degrade and fail.If the parts are still available a tech can get it back in service for another few years possibly.
IMO many moderately priced dacs today would have been considered state of the art ten years ago.Just my two cents:-)

I think that a good dac cannot be listen to...It disappears behind the music, and when you upgrade your system with new gear, or new tweaks, the music is always there and better than ever...But my dac is inaudible and like a magical ghostly hand that makes music more and more there with all my experiments and upgrade...It is like my dac does not exist... It is their analytical limitations that makes many dacs audibly present...If it is a TOTL dac it does not makes his presence audible on any count...Before my other dacs had a sound of their own and they were not to my liking...My actual dac has no sound of his that I can put my fingers on , and if he had one I dont know which it is because only the purest music comes trought it with each improvement in my audio system... I will not give his price because nobody will believe what I just said...It is a NOS dac, with the more minimalistic design possible then a low noise level...Upgrading it or replacing it horrify me, I plan to buy a second one to own it till death part us...Starting Point Systems nos battery dac for the curious one or those that because of lack of money dreams the impossible dreams...

I am looking to buy used in the $500/$800 range.