Best DAC?


Recommended DAC up to $5000.  Key sonic characteristics? Thank you!
erastof
seriously?

best $100 bottle of wine, please... how it tastes... please... thank you!
While better 411 would help get the right answer, strongly consider a Audio GD R2R dac. Now available from Underwood HiFi

https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/audio-gd
hth
I haven’ t heard many modern DACs but I recently purchased a MHDT Orchid and I think it sounds very very nice. Not digital sounding at all, and a big improvement over my Marantz CDP.  This DAC does a great job of gluing the digital bits together into music.
Obviously the Musetec 005.

Or then again, perhaps the most expensive Denafrips you can afford.

But no, what about the Holo May Kitsune.

Pass the meritage, please.
Top 3 dacs Holo springs May kte
Audio GD R7HE with power regen,- optional 10 MHz clock -$1k more 
Denafrips Terminator +a bit more $6500 Denafrips Terminator +