A moderate priced dac

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.

Try Starting Point systems nos dac ...New on ebay around 200 or 300 hundred bucks or used around 150 bucks...Forget about dac after that...But if you want a microscope forget this dac...If you like music this is the one... If you are patient you can discover one used for 100 bucks...This minimalistic design is the key to music...

get a new Denafrips Ares ll