Dac that has tone and timing?

I know that it is a stretch but the MSB discrete dac is pretty incredible in regards to resolution and tonal accuracy as well as people like to say prat. I moved from the Bartok to the discrete and was happy with the change. I did buy the bartok when they were still $12k so it made it easier to swallow than where they are now at $20k new. 
 

I did recently upgrade to the MSB premier and am extremely happy it adds to the discrete in all aspects but is way out of the price range you are looking in. That said you can find a used discrete around $9k right now. Or look at Metrum Acoustics the onyx is really good. 
 

@condosound +1 on the PS Audio MK2, I own one and think it sounds absolutely fabulous.

Lampizator. Any lampi.

I tested mine against aqua la voce, holo may, bel canto dac, classe flagship dac , and nothing come even close.

the tonal balance, the spatiality, the air, it’s just amazing, music feels alive, hard to describe.

the only Dac I heard so far that outshined it was the Accuphase DC1000 flagship, but it’s 20k…

given the additional responses i will add a few further comments

-- lampi has an excellent reputation, is definitely worth trying in any price category they compete in (generally the higher ones)... i have yet to try one, will some time in the future for sure -- they seem to use some fairly niche-y tubes in their higher up units, and this has deterred me thus far

-- i have commented on my past experience owning the border patrol se-i and rme adi dacs... i sold them both before long, as i found the bp rather lacking in resolution and being fairly dark sounding, even after rolling the rectifier tube... i suspect bp lovers have systems that are innately edgy/bright, so the bp can work well calming things down, bringing the sound back from that edge of sharpness -- even so, i feel other dacs in the price range have the bp’s ’musicality’ but offer more insight and clarity reproducing transients 

-- the rme is a resolving dac, pretty neutral in tonality but i felt it did not image well (narrow and fairly upfront, lacking in perceptible depth of stage), as such it may be best suited for headphone listeners... i had the akm dac chip version before the plant burned and the supply chain was disrupted

-- i had the ps audio directstream (first version), through several firmware iterations... it is a hard dac to get a handle on sonically as the firmware updates change the sound so much... windom was very smooth and dark, poor prat in my system, then the last version called sunlight moved everything to the other end of the scale, very forward and sizzly in the treble -- i have yet to try the newly released version... given its high cost, i am in no rush to do so

A good NOS DAC like the Holo Audio plus a software upsampler like HQPlayer. Select the reconstruction filter that suites your taste unlimited by the processor inside the DAC.