Need a DAC Recommendation.

Just asking for a friend who sold his Qutest and looking for a new DAC in the same price range and hoping for a better DAC.

Well, the replacement of the Qutest with the Pontus might prove an upgrade if the Pontus provides a sonic signature that better suits your friends sonic tastes as presented within your friends system. 

The presentation may (likely will) prove different to many, however which is better is subjective.

as @mesch said, the naive come here and seek recommendations for what’s ’better’, without articulating what that means in their application

the pontus is the warmest toned of all the dena dacs, lots of mid and midbass ’bloom’, somewhat laid back treble, so if you have a lean system, for instance, solid state amps driving b&w’s or monitor audio’s then it could well bring you modicum of body and full tone to the music

otoh, if you have a warmer system lacking impact and speed, say, a typical tube amp driving harbeths or vandy's --  then a chord unit will bring a greater sense of ’life’, rhythm and speed to go along with the lovely midrange tonality

’better’ in high end hifi is meaningful in an ’applied’ sense, more than ’intrinsically’, when you are dealing with quality items

I really appreciate your thoughts and comments jjss49!

You consistently pass along some of the most useful and clearly spoken advice on this forum.  

I recommend Ares II. Today I put back in Qutest and I was not too happy. Chord was resolving but sound was thin. Ares II warmer and fuller but wee bit less resolving like in layering of stage and top end air but Ares more enjoyable to listen to. With Qutest I wanted to turn my system off and call it a day!