I would like to upgrade my DAC (a PT Ordinal) and am looking for a second-
hand DAC with up to £1400 to spend. Any suggestions please?

Used Dax Decade's seem to be offered at around that price which I quite
fancy from what I have read about them but have never had the chance to
audition one. Martin Colloms seems to
regardit very highly but I can never remember reading anything about the DAX
Decade by any other reviewer. Would this suggest that the Decade has a
distinctive sound character which
may not appeal to everyone? Could anyone give me any indication of how the
Decade sounds?

The next question which is of slightly less concern to me at the moment, is
that 7 to 9 year old Mark Levinson's, Theta's and other brands are also
around my price range. Do these loose out to later more down market DAC's
which may be more up to date performance-wise? As I only buy used
equipment, I not particularly concerned about HDCD etc. as I have no such
disks in my collection but of course will probably upgrade in the future
when HDCD and/or SACD have become established.

All my system is second-hand and my transport is a Theta Data Basic,
ArgoHR/Hera
pre with and Beard P100MkII power amp with large AVI Gravitron (modified)
floorstanders.

Any observations or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Julian