[wilsynet]

+1 for the Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Plus.

Remove the tube.  Sounds great, even without opamp rolling.

[Reckoner]

FWIW, I have tried the Bifrost, Audio GD, EE (not the plus) and Beresford Camain SEG with the Touch and none of these offered significantly better sound than the Touch's internal DAC.  I still am looking for a 24/96 or 24/192 Dac that can better the Touch in both redbook and hi-res.  My current Theta Dac is significantly better (soundstage, presence, bass) than the Touch on redbook, but I would like to improve on the Touch with respect to hi-res.  I have a Jerome power supply on the Touch, which does make a difference with the analog output.

My opinion is based on direct A-B comparisons through my Classe preamp, btw, with various cable combinations.  Unfortunately, it does appear that you get what you pay for when it comes to Dacs.

[Shakeydeal]

I'm a little late to the party, but for my money, the MHDT Labs Havana is the one to beat under a grand.

Shakey

[alec_cat]

Top of my list under $1k would be the Metrum Octave, with lots of endorsements on the web.

The only downside seems it's limited to 172khz because of the unusual industrial DAC chips it uses, but if your hi-rez material is at 96khz, I'd consider this unit.