In that price range, and a step up from the DFC (I have both) might be the iFi xDSD. There is a thread on this beast, and I did a review of it here:
It’s not the top of the line, but it is compact, and works well. More importantly, it has a real line-out, so if you slowly upgrade, it can be a proper DAC to a desktop amp. I used it for a good while with the Lyr 3.