Best DAC/preamp for under $2K?

so what did you end up getting?

Still haven't gotten anything. My system is still in flux, so I'm waiting to get the rest of the system in place before I top it off with the right DAC. I'm leaning towards the Hugo but maybe I'll end up with a warmer tube staged DAC depending on the rest of the system.

I recently heard the SOTM DAC and Pre all in one. With a warmer sounding amp it sounded pretty darned good used as a preamp and DAC which justified the $3K, but just as a DAC there are no doubt better $3K units out there.

Have you considered hegel? The hd25 or hd20 are both outstanding.

I am also looking at the BMC puredac and was wondering if anyone has any feedback to contribute too.

I have a NAD M51 and it is a great sounding DAC with to me what seems like a purely transparent volume control. You can not tell the difference between variable and fixed outputs at normal settings. It is the best digital volume I have experienced and I've owned a few preamps and another DAC with digital volume.

I don't use it as a preamp but my preamp doesn't have remote so I use the M51's volume often. As a source component it is pretty close to perfect for my needs, I have my TV, music server, and BluRay connected to it. The HDMI input is great, I play a lot of music/concert BluRays in 2.1 and the HDMI input will accept the 24/96 content from discs and the 24/192 content from the hard drive I have connected to my BluRay.

It sounds incredible with anything you send to it , even free Pandora at 128k sounds pretty good.

The only con and in my opinion a serious omission, is the lack of front panel volume control.

Other than that I love this DAC