Next best exponential DAC quality level?

the relentlessness and a lack of resolution indicates that your are missing something.

What is he missing? Is it something metaphysical? Only explained by philosophy perhaps?

I am referring to DACs of course...converting digital to analog....nothing personal. 

The most enjoyable Dacs I have heard are the Tambaqui and the Emm Labs DA2V2, and they both cost a lot more than $99. If anyone cannot hear the difference, fine, stick with $99.00 Dacs and save yourself a lot of money. However I can hear the difference.

@loaman,

Oh, you heard these DACS in your system? You said you heard them, not that you owned them. I guess pointing out that it is impossible to pick out the characteristics of a DAC in a system you are not fully familiar with is pretty much impossible would be pointless huh?

For op, if $400 is all you can pay for a dac than your list of dac's is great. If you are curious what better dac's could sound like I think you should try a $1k dac, a $2k dac and maybe a $3-5k dac also. If you still can't hear any difference they just be happy with whatever you got. If you do hear a difference you may still choose to stay at or below $1k, it is up to you.

I personally don't think measurements are that important but for those who argues that it is the most important thing you should remember that the company dCS also thinks measurements are _very_ important. They produce dac's from about $15k and up. So they must be able to measure things that improve even in that price range.

I want to buy new speakers before trying to upgrade my dac but if I do I will probably look at the offerings from $1k - $2k there seems to be a lot of good ones in that range.

I think the op should listen critically to his $400 DAC, and then a $1000, $2K, $3K, heck even a $30K DCS. I wonder how many people have done a blind comparison side by side of a $400 modern DAC with a DCS, or maybe a Mola Mola, great engineering in both of those. I would highly encourage. I expect it will be enlightening.

Wouldn't you love to see a reviewer do a comparison unsighted of a bunch of DACs over a wide price range all with similar design outcomes? I remember that Passion For Sound guy did one. Then he spent two more videos trying to justify why he could not hear a difference. Good times.