Best Inexpensive DAC

I have a Benchmark DAC-1 & like it alot. It beats out my Phillips 963SA for sound quality & can be used as passive digital pre-amp with your amp because it has a vollume control. Plus it has a decent headphone amp, for the price I find it hard to beat. We tested it against my friends modded Art Dio & preferred the Benchmark. His DAC wasn't broken in yet & we will resume testing again today since his Dio has had plenty of break in time.

One more low-price jobbie; Theta's 'pro-basic'2--around 250.

A used Birdland Odeon-lite should be around $500 and mods for it can be had for around $700. World-class performance for $1200.

I'd have to second the Channel Island Dac. Just saw one without the upgraded PSU go for 220. I've owned several dacs, MSB, Theta, Cal Alpha and the Channel Island was the best. There was one with upgraded PSU for about 400 recently also. This is a very good dac for the money.

I was using a Denon DCD1650AR CD player, when I also decided to run the digital coax output to an external DAC. (I'm using a BAT VK-20, Aragon 8008BB and Thiel 3.6's.) I chose a used Dodson Audio DA217MkIID, which is probably more than your budget allows, but the point I am making here is that the sound was totally transformed. The Denon makes an excellent transport, with solid, reliable and error-free operation with any CD I load into it. You may find that it might be worthwhile to get a better quality DAC, because you might be willing to live with your Denon longer than you think. For what it's worth ....

Good luck!