Recommend A New DAC Between $1000 and $2000

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.

I tweak  everything I own for Decades to get the most out of it 

the New Gustard R2R26  is a excellent dac , theway the circuitry is situated 

a very good fuse makes a very big difference in this dac I own both the pontus 2 

and theGustard , the pontus no fuse option , I put the Synergistic research purple 

in there , and in all dacs a good powercord is a must ,the Pangea awg14 sig mk2

with Cardas wire is very respectable for $200. The pontus is a bit smoother on top - laid back , thegustard with the purple fuse is better in the bass more depth and detail ,it’s a bit better rounded dac ,if you are willing to spend the extra ,have a decent powercord for any good dac , and either the synergistic purple fuse 

or even better the QSA purple fuse but that is $330 vs $200 and give these fuses 200+ hours.  Our Audio get together had them both for the  day  70% took the Gustard setup as I described.

That's easy:

Gustard x26 pro

Gustard a26

Gustard r26

All well below 2k