A few, but definitely not all, that come immediately to mind, with the caveat that expensive means different things to different people …
Audio-GD:
All of these, even the one based on the ESS 9028, fall somewhere between “horror show” and “aural terrorism” for me.
- R2R 11 -DAC/Amp
- S19 “Singularity” - DAC
- NFB 28.28 - DAC/Amp)
- R8 - DAC
Bryston BDA-3 - DAC:
A >$3,400 DAC that I wouldn’t take over a Schiit Modi 3.
Chord Hugo - DAC/Amp:
This is the original one I am referring to (Hugo 2 is a completely different, vastly better, proposition). I preferred the much-less expensive Mojo. The original Hugo I just found bright with grainy treble. And the original was saddled with a need for a dedicated charger instead of USB-charging capability.
iFi Pro iDSD - DAC/Amp/Streamer:
I didn’t find the the raw DAC performance to be notably audibly better than their Micro iDSD Black Label. Different, yes, but not better - and I think the DSD1024 “conversion” is a gimmick at best. The streaming functionality is not up to par with the competition (at much lower prices). I still feel they should have released just the DAC portion for $1,499 and they’d have had something of reasonable value and that seemed much less half-assed and/or driven by a feature-committee.
Topping:
Any of their combined DAC/amp products prior to the release of the DX3 Pro. DAC sections were fine, if not really my cup of tea, but the headphone outputs were awful. They seem to have gotten this together more recently, and it’ll be interesting to see how the DX9 turns out.
Wells Audio HeadTrip - Amp:
I don’t even know where to start with this one … but power-excepted, there are multiple <$400 amplifiers I’d rather listen via.