What cheap dacs are there with volume controls?

Beresford TC 7520 in the $300 or so range.

Rich

Second the recommendation of the Beresford DAC. I have the TC7520 and have been very happy with it. It has S/PDIF, optical and USB inputs, volume control and a good headphone amp. The one in the link has some upgrades beyond my unit and is in your price range. They're available directly from the Beresford site and here on Audiogon.

I say check out the Grant Fidelity DAC-09 or DAC-11 tube dacs. Both have volume controls. I currently use the DAC-09 with a GE tube in place of the stock one and the sound is quite pleasant.

If you don't like tubes try the Cambridge Audio Dacmagic with the new Pangea P100 power supply. I have that combo in a headphone set-up and I'm really happy with it.

I recommend looking at the Maverick Audio TubeMagic DAC. With the upgraded tube your still talking under $250. I just completed a side by side comparison with it against the PS Audio Digilink III and they are shocking close sounding from their toslink / coax inputs.

I suspect the Cambridge Dacmagic and Pangea power supply are a fine sounding combination at that price but there is no volume control so if that's a deal breaker you'd have to look elsewhere.