M2Tech YoungPrice: $1800

Website: www.m2tech.biz

Vade said: The M2Tech Young is a worthy entry at its price. Unlike most of its competition, it can play up to 32-bit/384kHz files, which should future-proof its design. Though you may find the sound of super-hi-rez recordings superior to 24/192 files, I can’t say I heard any improvement. Of more interest to me was how the Young sounded playing the computer audio files available today: rips of CDs and hi-rez downloads. With those, it sounded delightful, with a smooth response, beautiful tonal reproduction, and lots of detail.

Read the SoundStage! Hi-Fi review.

The gist: The USB DAC for the highest sampling rates available.