"Best" DAC for a grand or less

It appears to be silly to waste more energy on the "accuracy from specifications" nonsense.

Another DAC that comes to mind for <$1000 is the Sonic Frontiers SFD1 and 2 series. This is from the same time as the Processor 3 series which was highly received by many viewers.....and also used the UltraAnalog chip set. 8-)

How about the Grant Fidelity DAC-09? It's around $300.

Chicagojtw, you may be confusing thin, bright sound with accuracy, unless you're listening to Britny Spears all the time.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone . I was wondering though about the Havana , I read it does not convert HDCD . So ,... stupid question , but does that mean no sound from them ,or those cd's will not benefit from that DAC?

I can only tell you that it reads and plays HDCD maybe some of the information is missing but if that is the case I certainly can't hear it. Sounds great! bty about the bass, this unit is still breaking in and I must say that the bass is improving dramatically but not in an exaggerated way as stated above. I am very sensitive to overcooked bass, don't want it don't like it but some to, YMMV