I’ve been dabbling a rung or two down a similar ladder (no pun intended), having recently had a Denafrips Pontus here, and now playing host to a Metrum Onyx.
The Denafrips was good, but the NOS mode wasn’t right - it was almost like a questionable NOS simulator, all acoustic space removed (and this is vs the cheap NOS DAC I’m using, so I know how NOS sounds). So OS was really the only way to fly, and for me that was good for OS, but still a bit too OS for me personally.
The Metrum is better IMO, with a more real sound, and quite well saturated. I’m still not sure if it’ll stay, but it’s only been here a couple of weeks, and although there may be grounds to be skeptical, the makers say it needs 3-4 weeks running to come on song, so I’ll reserve final judgement for another week or so. Which will take conveniently up to near the end of Elite’s trial window.
Extrapolating up, I think I’d love the Pavane if I was looking in that price bracket, so in the OP’s position I’d definitely want to make sure I’d tried one before deciding.
I’d like to hear an Aqua model, though tbh after lots of DACs over months, I’m getting fed up of trying, and think if the Metrum doesn’t swing it in the end, I’ll just stick with my cheap DAC and maybe treat it to a posh power supply.