DAC Under $3000

The Matrix X Sabre 3 is right on your budget. I have owned some vastly more expensive DACs, and the Matrix outperforms them all. Probably the best value in digital audio.

Sony has a proprietary FMGA processor they designed for their TZ-H1A headphone amp/preamp/DAC. It has filters to upconvert to DSD (which the invented with Philips). It is around $2K and if you stream or have non hirez files it is a great way to get DSD on a budget. I manly use it as a DAC in my system but the headphone amp is also great.

Try a brand called space tech. The guys name is Al and I had one of their streamer /DACS it was about $2500 and it sounded amazing. The only problem was I have been running my system without a preamp and this unit required a preamp. We found out because I had a little teeny weenie hum. We figured out that if I would’ve hooked it into a preamp it would’ve been nonexistent. I sent it back reluctantly because I was afraid that I would have a hard time if I sold it later on. I still think about the unit all the time it really sounded wonderful. 

Here is one I am eyeballing that fits the budget:

Weiss 204 $2,900.  Reviewers are gaga over this

DAC du jour. Gotta get in line now though.

The ANK 4.1x can be bought in kit form for $3k

and assembled for $3.5k. It uses 4 tubes and an

older AD 1865 chip. Very musical and detailed.

Good Luck!!

I've just bought a (second hand) Gustard X26 Pro.

It sounds fabulous at half your budget - but probably equals or betters DACs up to 3500, maybe 5000.

Wide image, incredible bass, dense and open mids, airy treble, great resolution. No ESS glare or "coldness" whatsoever, quite the opposite, in my system it sounds fluid and organic. 

since it is half the allowed budget, you can even add an external clock since t has a  10MHz clock input.