Which DAC makers let you do in home trial?

When evaluating DACs one of the most important measurements are what comes out of the analog with the lowest noise and distortion how that is done by using either R2R technology or Delta Sigma isn't that important if the noise floor is below human hearing. There are R2R DACs that do this very well as well as Delta Sigma. 

Oh No, Not Again......it appears @djones51 clearly one of those individuals who gives more weight to measurements over trusting his/her ears. Hence his choice of Benchmark DAC’s which to my ears sounds more clinical than musical.

“If it measures good and sounds bad—it’s bad. If it measures bad and sounds good, you’ve measured the wrong thing”

@hilde45, You have 14 days trial with Border, trust your ears and how it’s going to gel with rest of your system.

@cal3713 I want to reinforce that my post and suggested approach was specific to the OP @hilde45 It is not a general recommendation.

I do not recommend a limited time ’demo’ or ’audition’ given where you are in your journey.

The OP, based on the threads he has started, is in a (complete) system rebuilding phase. Given where he is in his ’journey’ (i.e. not that far along) I stand by my suggested approach.

@hilde45 All of the DACs you are likely to consider, whether returnable or not, are going to work and most likely will work well.

Optimizing a component, in this case a DAC, takes time and effort. Cabling changes, isolation, as well as actions taken upstream from the DAC can result in significant differences in performance. One cannot address the optimizing for your system (synergies) and your personal preferences via short, time sensitive auditions [given where YOU ARE, at this point in time].

Since your component purchase choices / decisions are in flux and not finalized, you need to start somewhere. And that holds across the board.

Don’t get caught up in over thinking this.

Actual hands on and ears on experience, in other words Living With a component and a system, is way more valuable than (excessive) rumination via posting and post responses.

I suggest pivoting to a position that looks at components for their value as Teachable Units over your pursuit of "perceived" performance values (currently unrealized since they only exist in these posts / forum).

@david_ten No offense taken.  Definitely valid points. 

Also, if the system is in total flux, perhaps an even less expensive DAC would be a better option?  The Black Ice Glass fx dsd is one that comes to mind.  If you search for that in the threads, you'll see that it won an audioclub's dac shootout vs. some much more expensive competition.  I think the dealer that advertises on US audiomart does offer a return period.  

And although I have limited data points, my experience agrees with @lalitk .  The Matrix X-Sabre Pro I tried was the best measuring dac in the world a few months ago (as tested by audiosciencereview).  It was also the least compelling in my shootout.  I kept rotating dacs and comparing and always kind of dreaded when it was the Matrix's turn.  It sounded fine and I would have enjoyed it if I had no comparisons, but in contrast to the other dacs it just removed the emotion from the music.