Dac that has tone and timing?

a dac that nails both a "meat on the bones" presentation that also preserves the leading edges of notes and maintains pace, rhythm, and timing

below 2 grand market price (used or new) -- in my order of preference, though all mentioned meet the op's stated criteria

mhdt tube dacs with tube upgrade (and ideally with modded caps)

older musical fidelity trivista 21

gustard r26

denafrips pontus

2-4 grand

modwright tube modded cambridge cxn v2

bricasti m3

musetec 5

higher price

msb analog w power base

chord m scaler hugo tt2

weiss 501

Hmm the DAC built into my Cambridge Evo 150 would seem to fit the bill but the whole shebang only costs about $3K. Added Roon recently and that in particular with the Cambridge seems to deliver meat on the bones along with attack quite well.

“Meat on the bones” has always been a forte of my Ohm Walsh speakers so that does not hurt.

There's a great ANK 5.1 with the best transformers on USAudiomart below your price range.

@roxy54

you raise a great point, i forgot about the ank 4.1 i had... splendid sound, definitely meets the op criteria in the 2-4 grand range (5.1 a bit more $ of course)

a giant of a box though, and it can’t handle sampling rates above 96k due to the rather limited input chip, but it is a lovely sounding unit

@roxy54 +1