Holo Spring 3 L1 or L2 sans pre-amp would fall within your budget, and is touted as being close in performance to the May.
GoldenSound has a thorough review here:
Better DAC then DA1 module in McIntosh C49 without braking the bank.
I got to the point in my system, when my DA1 DAC module in a McIntosh C49 preamp is the bottleneck.
In comparison to my vinyl, CDs, files and streaming sounds flat and unremarkable.
I have an SMSL SU-9 dac but it's worse than the one in Mac.
My system consists of Legacy Audio Focus HD speakers, McIntosh MC352 amp, McIntosh C49 preamp, McIntosh MB20 Bluetooth transceiver, Rotel RCD-1572, pc as a streamer and file player through Foobar2000. CD player is connected to the DAC too though coax.
DAC need to be able to do DSD, have USB, and connect via balanced.
I like the DAC sound signature to be as natural as possible.