I've heard nothing but good about the Sony 5400.
Are digital inputs a plus? I've been drooling over Esoteric SA-50s which have 3 digital inputs, I think. - while over your budget I've seen them for ~$3.3 K on Agon. If you break it up you get a great SACD player for under 2K and great DAC for under 1.5K - See, now you're under budget!!
(Yeah, my wife didn't buy that logic either)
-Mike