I picked up an XDA-1 when Emotiva was liquidating their stock a while back. In factory condition it sounded very good, but after replacing all the signal caps with Elna Silmic and Cerafines, it sounded much better to my ears....definitely worth the money I paid for it. Have you considered the XDA-2...I haven't heard it yet. Then, there are the older Dacs that sound great...Parasound DA/C 800 and 1000, Assemblage DAC-2, GDA600 to name a few. I'm a sucker for the older PCM chips but they may not be your bag.