Battle of the Older DAC

ASR reviews are useless.  I have a audiophile friend in town that swears by it, as one of the posters above stated they mostly review lower priced gear which there is absolutely nothing wrong other than stating its state of the art due to measurements which have no bearing on the sound quality that they produce.  The whole system has an impact on what you get,  I have a Benchmark Dac 2 HGC in my bedroom for headphones and when I put it in my main system I definitely feel the let down in sound quality compared to my Wells Audio Cipher Dac(tube).  I have owned many good dacs over the years and have always went back to a tube based DAC.  Ones to look for in your budget are the Wavelength DACS with the N2 board & ANK tube dacs factory built.  I would have recommended my Wells Dac but I am respecting your budget of $2k.  

My system is:

Herron 360 Reference ESP preamp

Herron VTPH-2a Phono Preamp

Sota Nova Turntable With Jelco 850 tonearm w/Haniwa HCTR-01 cartridge

Wells Audio Cipher Dac level 1 w/Bybee AC purifier's installed

432Evo Aeon Mkiii streamer

Miyajima OTL 2010 amplifiers(mono bloc)

hORNS Mummy speakers

Good Luck with your search. 

There is a brand new version of the Yggdrasil now, the Yggy+.

I had the original Yggy and loved it.  Every time I put a better power cord on it, the improvement came through clearly.

But you should only buy a DAC that you can audition in your own system and trust your ears (after an adequate break in time.)  You can do that with the Yggy+.

@incoming

Yes; the best option is to hear a dac in your room, especially if it is acoustically less than optimal. 

There are quite a few dealers who offer trial periods and return policies (without restocking fees). FYI, you will have to pay shipping both ways if you return.

PM me and I will provide a list.

Among these is TMR, who sell used as well as new.

Many thanks for the recommendations, and I always enjoy the discussions within this community.  Plenty of research ahead, which suits me just fine. Also plenty of envy for the options and service available in the US.

For those of us outside it is a bit more of a pot luck situation.

The Auralic is on loan from an enthusiast who sells new and second hand equipment as a side business. Haven't come across a retailer who provides trials of new kit, but also haven't specifically asked. Time to do that too.

Appreciate the direction folks.

@incoming

A quick Google search brings up names of audio clubs in N. Zealand:

Auckland Audio Society

Wellington Audio Club

Sound System Community NZ (Facebook)

Perhaps you could borrow a DAC or two...