Best streamer/DAC for up to $1500

I settled on the NAD C658. XLR balanced. I only use the DAC. BluOS interface is troublesome but depending on your music source, there are work-arounds. I paid under $1600.00 All in all, it does well. BTW, you'll have to find the best dB and unfortunately NAD won't let you "set it and forget it". Each time you use it, you'll have to adjust the setting. as it defaults to -20. dB when turned on. In my system, I have to adjust to -9 dB. Small inconvenience I wish NAD would fix with a firmware update.

Do you know what kind of sound quality characteristics you’re looking for?

At $1500 I would be looking at ~$500 or less for a good, lower priced streamer like an Allo USBridge Signature or SOtM sms-200 Neo + ~$1k DAC. It opens up far more options for you to achieve the sound you like.

If you can stretch a bit into the $1500 - $2k range, a used Lumin D2 would be a nice choice to look into for a streamer/DAC combo. There’s one on US Audio Mart right now for $1799 asking and one on Canuck Audio Mart for $1975 CAD. I haven’t heard the D2 per se, but I owned their flagship X1. Great package that’s solidly built from a well-known and resourced parent company, a breeze to set up with a nice app, and superb sound. Enormous soundstage, exceptional clarity, nice even tonal balance, smooth and liquid with a bit of warmth. It also employs leedh processing, a slick digital volume control algorithm that is supposedly lossless and works very well, so you use it directly with a power amp. Warranty is transferable as well. Worth looking into.

May not be your jam, but Shenzhenaudio just now emailed DENAFRIPS HERMES USB Digital Interface Premium Digital To Digital Converter 768KHz DSD512 Flagship HiFi DDC for $1499.00. 

Coveats for Musician Pegasus given by a reviewer are noted here FYI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH0MY044X8Q&t=180s

Schiit had a pretty solid Dac line starting from $199 Modius. SS is wide with decent depth and good image. I also find it really rounds the edges well and give non-fatiguing sound that I could listen for hours. Reviewers find it competing well with the highly raved $699 Bifrost 2.  Then if you desire something even better, consider $1,299 Gungnir.

A unit that doesn't get much talk but looks interesting is the Atoll MS-120 (no XLR). I was looking into this but decided on the Gold Note DS-10 plus because of the XLR balanced outputs.