DAC with volume control under $250

Thank you for that. I'm not too surprised that a) it's nothing more than good for the money and b)your friend is very happy with it. As far as the Benchmark comparison, that seems like wishful thinking or confirmation bias. It seems rampant on internet forums. Based on your report, I think it'd still be a win for my friend, who would never think to spend $1000+ on a DAC, but could actually benefit from the feature set this one provides. Mihaitaa, thank you so much for taking the time for the update. I, for one, really appreciate it.

Anonymoustao, looks like your friend and mine share the same goals when it comes to audio.
My friend's system was'n too bad at all, only old. Carver power amp and Infinity Reference Kappa speakers, with a delicious EMIT tweeter.
The system, with the Emotiva playing, was by all means listenable and enjoyable.
Here's his email to me:

Alex,

THANK YOU for your suggestion and guidance, this is absolutely fantastic. Now, I know you did not want any feedback before it burns in for 200+ hours, but nevertheless:

-- My original goal, as I will remind you, was to have better volume control. Well, now I have from 0 to 80 in 0.5 increments. There is no gain issue, 40 is right about medium. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. I don't need 200+ hours to tell me that.

-- Now, as to sound. I also don't need 200+ hours to tell me that it blows away my previous DAC and sounds phenomenal to these untrained ears. I am going from black to white, from night to day. I spent last night listening to all kinds of stuff and it's amazing all the detail I never heard before. Stuff that was muffled or kind of just "there" is now crisp and clear. And this is with the playpen partially blocking a speaker :).

-- Interestingly, I find that some of my music sounds crappy. It's such a huge difference that it must be related to the album or way I ripped it or something like that. It doesn't seem to correlate with bitrate. There are some things that are 800+ kbps that sound crappy. Must be how I imported eh?

-- I took this as an opportunity to check connections on speakers, I need to redo some of the cabling. My speakers have some funky controls on the back, not sure what to do with these. I will send a photo in a minute.

-- The "downstairs" system is now:
Infinity Reference Series 8 Kappa speakers Carver M-1.0t amplifier Emotiva XDA-1 DAC

Well, I ended up ordering one to use in my office system. The preamp capability/balanced output/price made it a no-brainer. My girlfriend and I share the office and we'll be using it with Hibachi monoblocks and Ohm speakers. And the multiple inputs mean we can have both of our laptops plugged in atthe same time.