Recommend A New DAC Between $1000 and $2000

One DAC in your price range you won’t hear much about but I found very good for the money and similar to some of my pricier DACs was the line magnetic DAC (they make only one model).  It has one 12ax7 tube in it which I found responsive and with positive results to tube rolling. If you have a local dealer they may allow you to take it home to try it out.  I did, and was very impressed.

My path so far has been from the built-in DAC in the Bluesound Node 2i, to the Schiit Modi Multibit, and now to the Denafrips Pontus II, which is in the price range you specified. I am sure I will get the itch to upgrade at some point, but right now I am quite satisfied with the Pontus II. Because it sounds slightly different depending on which input you use, I opted for sending the USB output from my streamer to a Denafrips Gaia DDC to be able to drive the Pontus via its I2S.

I'm considering getting a streamer that natively supports I2S, like Magna's Manus mkIII or the new Mercury V2, eliminating the USB to I2S conversion. If anyone has experience with these or similar, I'd welcome feedback. 

I still use a Theta DS Pro Gen V and recently added a Topping D90-SE for my streamer.  Not surprisingly the Topping sounds better (to me anyway) than my now very old Theta. $899

Khadas Tone Pro 2! $230 and including a headphone output!

+1 for the Denafrips Pontus II. I’m very happy with mine and at about $1800 USD it’s within your budget.