Best Dac with USB input for $1,000 or less

With the Havana the other SPDIF options do sound better to my ears. I don't agree with the previous post - I think the Havana is a damn good DAC for the $, but I would not use the USB input. Use optical or single ended. If you must go USB I'd look at the asynchronous implementation by Wavelength, or options by Empirical to get zeros and ones off your box. Both are more expensive. I think the inexpensive USB/SPDIF conversion in DACs at that price point just don't sound that good to my ears. That said, the PS Audio DLIII in stock form and various forms of upgrade might be a good choice if you simply must go that route and want to stick to that budget. I have a stock one in my office system and use the optical input - I have compared and it does not give up much via USB as the Havana does. Not sure how it accomplishes that...perhaps better jitter reduction? On the used market a stock one is half your budget, while you can get a pretty pimped out version for $1k. No experience with the flashier versions. Good luck!

The Havana with the Bel Canto USB link sounds absolutely awesome and beats anything I've heard up to 4000.00. There are other DACs that reveal more, show more imaging reverb trails blah blah blah but the Havana gets to the soul of the music and to me that is what counts. I hear more of all the audiophile things we talk about with other DACs but am always restless and find my mind wandering when I don't have the Havana in the system.

PS Audio DLIII is fantastic. Not overly detailed. It has a soul and presents the music as real, not digital. It has USB, optical and coaxial inputs, all of which are very good.

Ejlif,
Do you believe your preference for the Havana has to do with it having tubes and the rest of your system being SS?
I ask because I'm keeping an eye on DACs and have a tubed pre and amp.

Horacio

No_Regrets - what is the rest of your setup like (i.e. solid state amps, etc.?). Are you looking for detail, or to corrale digital and its tendency towards being bright? Do you prefer upsampling? There's too many options to just throw out a general question.

The Havana is a great DAC. With a tube'd preamp, the right set of ICs and a good power cord it could be just what you're looking for. If the damn thing had a built in analog preamp I wouldn't have sold my Havana last year. My setup is all tube and on the warm side with a Rogue Stereo 90 and a pair of Living Voice speakers. I settled on the 2009 TADAC with built in preamp for now, but most of the dirty work is being done by an Empirical Audio Turbo-3 and some pricey digital cabling.

For under a grand with nothing upstream addressing the USB jitter, you'll have a tough time finding very clean sound. Probably Benchmark would be your best option since it's under $1k used and deals with USB fairly well. It's very detailed in sound though (I used to own one). The Havana doesn't sound very good via USB compared to a clean SPDIF fed to it via it's RCA input.

Solid state dacs sound very different from tubed. I've owned 3 solid state DACs (all over $1k on the used market) and two tubed DACs (both well UNDER $1k on the used market). I'd take the simple tube DACs every time if given a choice but it's all down to preference.