Already many great-sounding suggestions, I’m sure. I’ll add another vote for a DAC from Schiit and in particular, the Gungnir with Multibit upgrade. New, it will come in slightly under your $1500 top budget at $1249. No XLR input but the Gungnir does have a pair of balanced XLRs OUT (as well as 2 pairs RCA out). It is a true balanced design. Inputs are BNC, Optical & RCA SPDIF + USB (now standard). It doesn’t "do" DSD as @djohnson54 also noted. Find all the info at the link to their site, below. Do note the 5 year warranty along with a 15 day in home trial period (money back less a 5% restock fee). You will need to burn in any new Gungnir a solid 10 days (at least!) processing signal 24 hrs/day to start to hear what it really "sounds" like.
FWIW - I just had my Gungnir upgraded to Multibit and have been knocked out by the new and unexpected high level of performance that resulted...and I was already very happy with it before sending it in. It’s almost worth getting the stock Gungnir first ($849) so you can appreciate what the MB upgrade does.
Prior experience was with a Musical Fidelity V-DAC (1st gen) in combination with their V-Link..
http://schiit.com/products/gungnir
Good luck with your decision.
FWIW - I just had my Gungnir upgraded to Multibit and have been knocked out by the new and unexpected high level of performance that resulted...and I was already very happy with it before sending it in. It’s almost worth getting the stock Gungnir first ($849) so you can appreciate what the MB upgrade does.
Prior experience was with a Musical Fidelity V-DAC (1st gen) in combination with their V-Link..
http://schiit.com/products/gungnir
Good luck with your decision.