DAC RECOMMENDATIONS PLEASE

My digital journey (which started with CDs ~1984) was troubled. The sound was convenient as hell, but sounded terrible when played above moderate volume on  good audio gear. Digital sound refused to "scale" -- it refused to get better with better downstream gear.

That all changed with my first non-delta/sigma DAC ~6 years ago. It was the non-oversampling Audio GD NOS-19. That led me to Audio GD’s big seller, the R2R, oversampling DAC-19. These 2 were my "gateway DACs" to digital sound that no longer annoyed me, fatigued my ears, and made music sound amusical.

I’ve moved on to better DACs since then. Currently I have 3 good NOS DACs: the MHDT Labs Orchid; the Metrum Onyx; and the Audio GD R2R-11 MK2. Each has its pluses and minuses; they do not sound especially alike. But all three share a freedom from digititis.

So my 2 cents is simple: get yourself a well-reviewed R2R or NOS DAC and see what you think.

TMR has Schiit for $1799. Try it. They have a good return policy. 

If your budget allowes please consider the Weiss DAC204. 

@jfmerk Almost any new DAC is going to do a decent job. It will come down to your personal preference in the sound you like best. Another huge factor is the sound of your system minus the DAC. Is it warm, bright, neutral, etc. When you see comments like DAC xyz blew away DAC abc my takeaway is better system matching.

I have 2 2-channel systems, one is a bit warm, and the other is a bit brighter. Every DAC I have tried on each system has worked but some are bit better due to better sonic matching.

The 2 DACs at the $2k-ish price point I like and own are the Benchmark DAC3b (a bit bright) and the Yggi+ Less Is More. I think the Yggi+ is a neutral to slightly mellow DAC.

BTW - I just noticed that you also were looking for something with a warm tone. The Gustard X26 Pro would be a good choice for that. I owned it for a while, and it worked great with a bright set of phones. It is around $1200-$1500 and goes on sale every few months.

To second @dickieboy and ​​​​@krelldog PS Audio's DirectStream is a great value currently. I have a DirectStream Jr. for sale on USAM and no one is biting so I keep lowering the price. It retailed for $4K and currently have it at $1400. In combo with the built-in streamer this DAC sounds smoother than anything I've owned. I always seek warmth and realism in vocals and acoustic instruments. I'm currently running a Chord Qutest and Denafrips Ares II off of Bluesound Nodes in two separate systems, and neither are quite as good to my ear. I'm prioritizing convenience of the Bluesound interface thus the reason I've decided to sell. My speaker setups are Harbeth M30.2 XD and Graham Chartwell LS6.