DAC shopping - Trying to sift through the Hype. Can I trust the reviews these days ??

OP, I'm in the same bit of quandary you are.  My SMSL SU-9n and Modi Multibit are the weak links in my two systems, but in the absence of something to compare with, they still sound great.  The two systems are either highly vintage tube ending in Altec 604 or hybrid tube/ss ending in Magnepans.  A friend with fine gear (Hegel 390 and Dynaudio speakers) just bought the Holo Cyan 2 and said it clearly bests the resident DAC in the Hegel, and he can compare live with a switch.  Other contenders in my list include Benchmark DAC3 and Chord Qutest.  Another friend went with the Denafrips Venus, and while I could hear improvement, the step change with his system wasn't enough to drop $3K+.  With the possibility of import tariffs looming in the near future, I'm feeling a bit more motivated.  If you're in the US, that may also be a factor for you.  Buying with a return option, even with a restock fee, is a bonus.  Good luck with your search!

@kairosman  The New Venus 15th is a Terminator II it looks like to me. I just received a Terminator 15th yesterday which is really a Terminator + 12th + some FPGA adjustments. It's cooking in my system now, will listen in a few days.

I have owned a Denifrips Terminator Plus 12th R2R DAC, a dCS Bartok Apex ring DAC and finally decided on the modified Directstream MK1 as it sounded the best to us. These were evaluated for almost a year in our system.

@bunkertoy

I'm with some of the others on this topic. I've been down the "Dac of the month" club and have heard a lot of them in my setup. Depending on your system house sound you gotta match what is needed or not needed for that matter. I'll give my 3 opinions below of the different styles or flavors of Dac's I went through and then you can get an idea of what may work with your sound and what you are looking to-get out of it.

1. I'll start with R2R Dacs- I've tried many, from the Holo Spring 3 KTE, Terminator Plus, Aries II, Pontus etc etc - All sounded very similar and some slight differences as well, but you could tell they had the same signature to them. I found them all to be very organic, in depth, warmish sound or maybe just a tad rolled at the top or maybe they are slow at the top I would say. Now onto setup, first off, I have a huge room 36x18 and lots of warm feel with tube equipment with Andra II speakers & Nautilus 801. If you prefer and much warmer feel, smaller cozy venue and not the big grand concert hall with lots of air around the room then R2R is your thing. Now if your system is already big and bright with lots of echo and hard surfaces that needs a little taming, again R2R might be what you’re looking for.

2. This is the category that I tested the most, chip based dacs delta sigma mainly ESS Sabre but had a couple of others. These matter the most with implementation and the analog output section. These dacs all had a similar house sound as well but also with some small differences as well. The proper ESS Sabre dac with a proper analog section will absolutely blow your mind but not many manufactures get it right I feel like. I've heard a few choice higher end ESS dacs get it right for sure. When they don't get it right, it can run you out of the room with a headache for sure. Now, there are what we call bright, open, big sounding chips such as ESS Sabre, warm fuzzy cool to touch chips such as Wolfson, AKM, Burr Brown. I had best luck with ESS Sabre such as LKS-DA004/005, Gustard bits, T&A Dac 8 with T&A Dac 8 and D005 being the best in this range of delta sigma. A quick note about AKM chips, to my ears this chip sounds as if ESS and R2R dacs had a baby together and out came the AKM sound. Again, just what I heard in my setup/room/ears.

3. Now this is where I think the future is, Streaming Dacs. I know I'll probably get chastised for this one...LOL I feel like the best all-around sound that could be slightly tailboard was this category and the most flexible. Once I left the USB dac scene I never looked back. You can get a wonderful sounding streaming dac with a chip or FPGA and with software upgrades or firmware changes you can slightly change the sound and get some fun cool software to play with such as Lumin, Cary, Aurender or Roon etc. I would without a doubt tell you to start here and leave the USB behind or even i2S behind. You can get some badass Ethernet cables for wayyyy cheaper than USB/i2s stuff and yeah if your system is good enough you can hear difference in these cables as well, but that's another topic. I would suggest these dacs to try or add to your short list not in any order. You should consider these based on good sound, options, and build quality with support. Lumin, Cary DMS line, Aurender, PS Audio DS MK1. I feel that this is the future of Dacs and USB/i2s will get left behind for some of us but not all.

At your price range, do yourself a favor and consider a streaming dac, maybe the PS Audio DS MK1 with bridge II is the start since it has like 10-12 different firmware's and each sound is a little different. with lots of input options and can be modded a little bit. Maybe even a Lumin D2, D3, T2 all sound fantastic but limited inputs. I currently have the Cary DMS-600 which sounds like some of these others mentioned all had a baby together...LOL I do plan however to go back to a Lumin but that is only because of the synergy with my setup and what I prefer in sound to my ears. Sorry for the long-winded post but this is only my .2 cents.

YMWV

From my experience the biggest difference that separates less expensive dacs and oreamps (<$2k) from more expensive dacs is the quality of the power supplies. A inexpensive way to hear that is to buy a VeraFi Audio Snubway and perhaps a Mainstream, and if you don’t have a quality power conditioner then get the Ace Power Package before agonizing over other dacs

HTH