What the Best Dac have you heard or owned. How could you tell it was that good.

Tbh I haven’t auditioned a new DAC for a couple of years except at Axpona last year, and I find it hard t make conclusions about anything in a show environment.  Is it possible that given the nature of trickle down technology, it is possible now that a $2K DAC might be equal to a $10 K DAC from a few years ago?  The chips are bound to be less expensive as newer ones come out.  For $2K the designer can still do a decent power supply and other quality aspects of implementation.  Just wondering 

@mahler123 my current dac is going to glory with me. It gets to a point after 20 years where I’m gonna sit and listen. Enjoying the music is most important to me.  Any upgrade at this point probably not worth it for me.  I have 55k front end and 25k in speakers and subs. My stuff has great synergy. Time to sit back and enjoy. However, some of us are forever curious! 

@calvinj 

I own the Grimm MU1as my streamer and who is also a Nagra dealer.  You may actually want to demo the new MU2 which is a dac/streamer/roon endpoint all in one.  I run Roon through my whole house via the MU! and it is flawless.  Having worked at Phillips in my prior life, the guys from the Netherlands were some of the original team that worked with Sony on the cd player originally.  So, these guys really "get it".  There was a recent article/review on the MU2 that was outstanding so it is worth a look it.  I'm not sure if Grimm is going to be at Axpona but I'm sure one of their dealers will be.  Keep me posted on your progress and let me know what you decide to get.

OP - understood, apologies if I came off as harsh. I believe in full disclosure and that those with a professional interest can and should comment but should always disclose their industry interests. 

On your question, best I’ve owned is the Nagra Tube Dac. It’s a case study in implementation - you can get newer digital but it’s hard to find better implemented power supplies / analog output stage...that stuff does not get old. It does deserve a proper preamp and good server / transport.