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Best processors -but best tech ?

Posted by J. Phelan (A) on February 21, 2017 at 11:04:08

In surveying the top-rated digital processors, I'm stunned that most don't use a true-ladder R2R DAC. Now, I'm aware that we don't *need* these for good sound. But for Robb Report prices, I would expect to get 'real' tech as much as possible (decoding without heavy processing).

Take the Soulution 560, a 1-bit DAC (w/ chipset costing $40), priced at $35,000. Unit has a digital volume control to boot. (No analog/digital, analog-only or optical attenuation, which from these, all great systems have).

The 560 sounds very good. It should -it has great parts and close attention to noise regulation, p/s, output stage, etc.

But this product is not alone, as (most other) world's best DACs are similar. Whether the Chord Dave, EMM DA2, Simaudio 780D, Berkeley Alpha Ref, DCS DACs, Gryphon Kalliope -all of these use 1 to 6 bit (cheap) D-to-A converters, with lots of band-aide processing.

Worse, it seems that even the *processing* is slow, as noted by Dave K. (here) last year. At least, when referring to DCS gear.

Current 'world's best' that use ladder-DACs: Trinity, CH Precision, Totaldac, MSB, Aries Cerat (Kassandra), CEC (DAO 3.0), Tidal (Camira) and Mola-Mola's DAC.

These (seem) to offer higher sound-quality over hybrid DACs.

Charlie Hansen once said it's like comparing a boxed-cake with one made from scratch. For this kind of cash, I would want scratch...

Edits: 02/21/17 02/21/17 02/21/17 02/21/17 02/21/17 02/21/17 02/21/17 02/22/17 02/22/17 03/09/17 03/09/17 04/15/17

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