Soooo many choices.

Wow, I didn't want to hear that. I may have the option to hear 2 DAC's near me is all. The likelihood of them being in the feature group I want is poor, the quality level and feature group, next to nothing.

Dodggitter - currently , 764 is close to the top for consumer product - commercial may go higher

File size becomes a factor - 24/192 files can start around 250-350 Bytes an go up from there - I've seen some downloads over 1 gig.

My plan is to stop at 24/192 - if I want higher - I switch to vinyl

Paulsax hit the nail on the head - price is not an indicator of how good your ears tells you a component sound

Dragon1952 auditioned the Gungnir and preferred the NuWave. I heard the Bifrost and it sounded better than Wadia chord and Mytek in the $1300_$1700 range - to my ears

Different ears, differing preferences, in different systems

This hobby has never been black and white, but sometimes the shades of gray can overwhelm.

Hmm. My mid-length goal is upgrade amp and preamp after the DAC. That's going to mean lots more changing components around then in trying to find sound I like. That's what I was trying to avoid by getting better/more expensive gear.

BTW that should have said 250-350 Mbytes - but I hope the later ref to 1 gig made that apparent.

If it were me I'd do the pre-amp and amp upgrade before the DAC - get them settled first. You may find the DAC is not a good match to the pre-amp.

What do you have currently?

In the cabinet now is oppo 981hd DVD player for my 2ch use, Nak Ca5, NAD 2040, and Paradigm Mon7's. My interest is almost only stereo. Music is Jesse Cook to Alison Kraus to Joe Sample to Stevie Ray Vaughn to Latin pop to 3 Days Grace and beyond. No classical, no rap.
I have a Nak 420 I want to put in and try it, along with a second 2040 I want to try by going bridged.