Options for $1k or less DAC?

I'll add to the others that the MHDT DACs sound wonderful, very musical and detailed.  I just switched to a MGDT Stockholm v2 and love the sound

And how much does that Stockholm 2 cost?  Did you read the thread title?

op

search is your friend

big greg ---->>>  https://www.lineartubeaudio.com/products/mhdt-labs-dacs

@jjss49 try a search for "rhetorical".

all rhetoric aside, if big_greg is trying to lead the op and other readers to believe the schitt bifrost is an equally good sounding or a better sounding dac than a mhdt stockholm 2 or orchid, that belief would be rather incorrect imo

based on my comparisons, the mhdt dacs outperform not just schiit’s bifrost (mb) but also their gumby and yggy for overall musicality, finesse and coherence ... the bifrost has a warm midrange and bloated midbass that obscures, and a sibilance problem in the lower treble -- the yggy solves the sibilance problem but delivers a rather ’hifi’/accentuated treble that is rather disembodied from the rest of the music, something akin to a speaker with a ribbon tweeter poorly integrated with the mid/bass drivers

saying the bifrost ’holds it own’ is a matter of personal taste and how much allowance for poorer sound one allows in their system and with their hearing -- a samsung smartphone ’holds it own’ against a top flight hifi dac in that it also transmits the music... but it sounds much worse

my 2 cents

ymmv, which obviously it did with greg