DAC suggestion Please

Do you need a DAC with a preamp/volume control?  If so, that does limit the choices.

Actually, thinking about it, whether or not you need a "volume" control, I would look at the Gustard DAC-X20 Pro with USB input at $869.  It does have a volume control so that you do not need a preamp in between.

RME makes some very good stuff if you are looking at the mid-proaudio level. It is a distributed and "reseller" item, so there will be considerable mark-up. That’s not bad, but expected with many item. There are some things that the Gustard has which the RME does not have:

- Two separate fully linear power supplies
- Multiple crystal clocks for different sampling rates (i.e. 44.1/88.2/172.4 vs 48/96/192). Extremely high quality clock for main system CPU.
- Fully discrete analog output sections (that are balanced as well)
--

While the RME is not bad, it uses a wall-wart swtiching power supply, in addition to several other things. I’m sure it will work fine, but I think the Gustard is definitely on another level.

I would say that upgrading either the active speakers OR the DAC will give an increase in sound quality.  The KRK Rockit are not bad, and they are at the same level as my Yamaha HS8 (only smaller).  I have been able to make my Yamaha monitors just "sing" by doing DAC/preamp upgrades as well as power cord/fuse upgrades.   Sure, the Kef LS50 are definitely more accurate and high resolution, but the DAC source is important as well.