Recommend A New DAC Between $1000 and $2000

Haven’t heard the Gustard R2R but reviews are off the charts. That’s where I would go. I have a Musician Aquarius and if it’s anywhere near that and by all accounts it is (possibly better) could be a steal. It’s a business obviously so prices will go up IMO in the near future if that’s the case. 
 

+1 on the Black Ice / Jolida tube dac. Great dac, very musical and can even be had used for well under $500. Wish I still had it to compare. 

Oh, I was not paying attention.

A Schiit Yggdrasil DAC. Outstanding sound for the money, even if a tad over your price point. It competes favorably with DACs of twice the cost. I did a deep dive into budget DACs for a friend of mine, in the process bought a Schiit Gungnir for my office system and my got my friend to buy the Yggdrasil… great sounding DAC for the money.

Border Patrol might do it for you also maybe an AN Kits Dac.

The black ice I owned the tube gives it a warm signature but very rolled off 

the Denafrips basic Aries is much better ,the pontus2+ a excellent dac 

and the new Gustard r2r26 is excellent ,add the synergistic purple fuses it is better then my pontus2 dac   
I am saving for a true reference the T&A  200 dac ,which is exceptional .

I’m using an smsl su-9pro it’s natural sounding since you can turn off all filtering and can reach 135db which is also very nice and the price is 500 usd.