My son uses my DC-1 as a DAC for his PC! What an attractive well designed box it was.
I still use the plain vanilla DC-1($180 delivered) as a DAC at our Santa Cruz place, with optical input from Mac Mini. I don't see any reason to upgrade, great sound quality, and I was surprised when it decoded a 48 Khz/24bit signal from the Mac Mini without batting an eyelash. I thought those units only did 20 bits. I have contemplated using it with a Meridian 518 since the bit rate decodes higher than 16/20.
Also, with a Ratshack adapter, it is an outstanding headphone DAC. On the cheapskate side, you don't need to spend a lot to get good sound, but you probably do have to spend a lot to stay in fashion.