what is the best, least costly DAC...?

I suspect that the problem was the Mac components; my friend used a Mac 402 with matching Mac pre driving his Wilson Sasha speakers until I took my Musical Fidelity NuVista M3 over, they were gone within a week. Since I do use Musical Fidelity components in my own system [ Kw line stage, Kw phono stage, M3 amp, V-DAC] I think I have a better idea of what they can do. I regularly compare them with other components I have like an Audio Synthesis DAX decoder, or Conrad Johnson Primer 350 amp and they come off very well. The M3 is not quite the equal of the 350 but it was half the price, includes a pre section and will drive loads the CJ won't.

@ Restock... "I do prefer the Weiss for it's slightly more even handed presentation and analog like quality."

i found the exact opposite to be true, that is, i found the Wyred to sound more analogue and 'dimensional' than the Weiss. we've all got different rooms, different systems, and different ears - horses for courses as they say!!

The advice to bring a $300 DAC to life with a $1700 digital cable is astonishing in its stupidity.

Breathtakingly stupid advice.

Check out the $300 HRT Musicstreamer II+. It does asynchronous USB, handles 24/96, and sounds incredible! Highly recommended. Not quite as good as my Bryston BCD-1 Cd player but close enough for my music server. Money well spent.

Kbarkamian - V-DAC is ANYTHING but dull and lifeless sounding. It is very transparent, with excellent resolution and soundstaging.

If you found it dull sounding, than it may be one of two things:
- your DAC was faulty
- your system was voiced around old Theta gear, which is known to be very bright and brittle sounding. I know Thetas very well, since I owned a dosen of their dacs: Cobalt, Prime II/IIa, Basic II/III/IIIa and Gen V/Va/Va balanced.

Here is an excelent review from hifi critic:

http://rapidshare.com/#!download|266|422349120|MF_V-DAC_HiFi_Critic.pdf|9181

and German AUDIO:

http://www.taurus-high-end.de/infomaterial/cambridgeaudio/test/test_dacmagic_audio0109.pdf