Best Inexpensive DAC

Another approach is to check scott-nixon.com for his pared down, purist approach DAC's listed new from $250 to $500 range.
In this very modest cost approach to top quality, there is even option of tube output DAC.

The Bel Canto DAC 1.1 can normally be had around $500 and the DAC 2 for a bit over $800. Also, the Perpetual Technologies P-3A is fairly good with a few modifiations for less than $500.

Rick

Check out the Channel Islands DAC with the upgraded power supply. I was looking for an inexpensive DAC for my family room system to improve the sound of an older Toshiba DVD player (SD-9000). It is used mainly by my daughters so the Toshiba sees more Muppet Movie and Power Puff Girls DVDs than music playback but I still wanted something decent without spending much money. A member listed a set of the little Channel Islands boxes with an upgraded hard-wired power cable connecting the two for $350 so I decided to give them a try. When they arrived, I hooked them up and looked around for a disc to try and settled on "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (great soundtrack, Danny Elfman is a genius!) just to see if my $350 was well spent. I ended up sitting through the entire movie and then ran upstairs to grab some CDs. The system, although very modest, sounded pretty amazing - Jolida integrated, Athena AS-F2 speakers, Toshiba transport and the Channel Islands pieces wired with DH Labs cables - for a total $1100 investment. Your equipment is of a much higher caliber than my family room system and you could definitely do better for more $ but for around $350 (used) I haven't heard anything that's better.

EAD 7000 mk 3

My vote in the used 300-500 price range would be for any of the monarchy m22* dacs. Very nice and big improvement over the internal dacs of my pioneer dv45a using an m22c.