"Best" DAC for a grand or less

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

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

You are definitely correct from your perspective that "accuracy from specifications" is nonsense - it is also silly for any of us to "fight" about this.

However, to be fair, some few people do value accuracy enough to give it a high weighting in their equipment selection criteria and do not regard specifications and measured performance as nonsense.

Specifications and measured performance are rather important in our modern world. Without it we would not even be here on this forum chatting via the internet.

To give an example, I wish the Mark Levinson system in my car was designed with more attention to accuracy - because quite frankly the darn thing is just an incredibly expensive "19 speaker" boom box. However to most people's tastes it sounds awesome.

Certainly the Benchmark is not the only DAC that measures flat or that has super-low distortion. I'm sure that most of the DACs already mentioned measure well.

There are SO many variables that finally, how a DAC measures is academic. It's how it SOUNDS that matters, in the CONTEXT of the system's synergy. A Dac's ''flaws'' (or lack of ''measurement'') may actually contribute to the overall musical experience this way.

Looking at it this way, the Dac is not unlike any other piece of gear in the system as the results will vary. And we have not even touched on musical biases and tastes. Why complicate things?

I don't know if it is the best but my Matrix Mini-i is pretty good. Good enough for me to sell my MSB Gold Link III. It now come with a remote contol, has balanced ins and outs, usb, AES, toslink and SPDIF, along with a headphone amp. All this for less than $350.00.