How do you make a final decision on a DAC

I’ve got a very different suggestion & that is the Border Patrol DAC designed & built by Gary Dews in Maryland. He designs & builds really good tube equipment albeit quite pricey. The fully optioned model is just under $2K & sounds excellent! It’s a controversial piece which several well respected reviewers love & some hate because it doesn’t measure very well. 
 

I find it clean, tight but most importantly not at all fatiguing. It has one rectifier tube for the power supply which is not in the signal path. If you listen to R & R & appreciate  the sound of a hood turntable w/o typical vinyl drawbacks, check it out!!

I am another Denafrips fan.  I’m running a Gaia/Venus II combo and it’s wonderful.  Smooth as silk and easy to listen to, while still being very detailed.  I recently tried out the Classe Delta PRE preamp and it has an ESS DAC built in, and it didn’t even come close to the Denafrips combo.  (The Classe is still an amazing preamp, though).  Also, I have dealt with Todd and he fixed an Avatar CD transport that was a little off and did a great job.  Plus one Denafrips for me.

I like the ideas mentioned of waiting until the system is set up. You currently have a good DAC and based on how all the pieces work together may effect the direction you go with your potential new DAC.  A 20X30 foot area sounds like you have one of the best pieces of gear already..... a large room. 

@dancarlson10 

Are you commenting about using the Cobalt (versus these other dacs high level dacs) in a home speaker system and not with headphones?  

That is impressive if so!!

"Consider the Cobalt by audioquest. Auditioned terminator 4k from a friend, luxman DO3X 4k, Schiit Yggy 2500 and the Cobalt 300 dollars. Not even close. The Cobalt is quiet natural clean comparatively. So quiet, and timing is more correct.  Real music. Then again I sit in the front violin chair of a great professional orchestra. So what do I know. Of course if budget is no issue then it’s Wadax anything. I am saving up."

@mr_bill 

i am indeed. Audio quest makes a cable mine is Audio quest “yosemite” they also make one “victoria”that is single ended which plugs into the cobalt and cobalt plugs directly into the USB slot on my Wadax Atlantis server. The 2 sided end of the cable plugs directly into the Pre amp aux 1 or whatever u want It was recommended that I try it because my friend who sets up audio systems uses it often. Basically I have found that so many dacs have so many clocks, timers and parts working that I end up feeling like I am listening to a machine and that especially the timing is off so it comes off to me as noisy. The cobalt is simple and quiet and fluid in a natural way. My friend (another musician) didn’t believe me so I did a blind test with Cobalt and 2 other 4k dacs I had. He chose the cobalt and was really annoyed that he did. Is it the end all DAC well I bet no. Until I can afford the Wadax Atlantis X coming out soon this will do nicely. It made the Schiit Yggy sound like noisy crap. I admit my streaming side of things is out of balance as I use hard-lined optical converting into a fancy SOTM switch powered by Nordost linear power supply which is great and Vahalla 2 ethernet cable into the Wadax and another Valhalla power cable powering the Wadax. What that extremely smooth and quiet streaming does is really really really reveal just what the dacs faults are. That is like  35k on the streaming end. I did all that over time one piece at a time to really hear if what i was doing mattered and made for a more natural and enjoyable listening experience.. And oh hell yeah it all mattered.  At the very least Cobalt is 300 bucks and crutch field has a full 30 day trial policy on products. Worth a try? The cobalt is no joke. I even have tyre 2 interconnects sitting on the floor unused because I can’t use them with this dac.