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Comparison of latest DAC chips

I own a Bluesound Node 2i which greatly improved sound after I added the Cat 6 cable.  I do not own a separate DAC but am told it would be the next step improvement.  I have done enough reading that it appears the two latest chips are the Sabre or ESS ES9038PRO and the AK4499.  The brands I have looked at are Sabaj d5($469) and a Topping D90($699).  I saw a great review on Audiocircle of the Sabaj D5 which is now a year old.  The Topping D90 is newer and I hear the build quality of the Topping as well as customer service are both better.   Other brands cost more and most don't use these new chips. 

Is there a difference in how these chips sound?  I would appreciate any comments. 
128x128daledeee1
daledeee1's avatar
daledeee1 OP
563 posts
 
It seems the ESS and AKM chips are meeting somewhere in the middle.  The ESS chips were maligned for glaring, too analytical, etc.  The AKM had a darker sometimes murky sound.  Reviews I see say both of them have solved the criticisms.  I know this can be a debate but I can only go by what I read since I can't A/B them.  The new AK4499 is supposed to be more open and has "slam"  I will find out by Friday.  The Topping is kind of heavy so the power supply should help??  Not an EE.
cal3713's avatar
cal3713
1,421 posts
 
Even in George's list of R2R dacs which he claims are superior (I also have an R2R Audio Mirror T3-SE), it really is the implementation that matters.  The dacs on that list are going to sound very different from one another.  I'd contend that many would be judged as sounding just as different from one another as they would vs a dac based on a different chip/methodology.

Finally, although I do believe in measurements, it's definitely not everything.  I demoed the top measuring dac in the world for a month (as tested by audiosciencereview) and it did not impress.  It was the worst sounding dac among the bunch (Audio Mirror, Matrix, iFi, & Lampizator). 

It's an aural hobby, be guided by numbers, but the ears are the final judge.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
Depends on what filters they use or if they build their own out board filter, even R2R dacs use filters. You didn't  like the Mola Mola Tambaqui  at $11,000 ? That's the top dac tested by ASR.
mtdining's avatar
mtdining
131 posts
 
In high end audio, it is always about the chef, not the parts. The Ayre Codex is still the most musical Dac I've heard under $5k. No two R2R Dacs will ever sound the same - they are based on the ridiculous premise that it is possible to find two resistors (in the real world) which are identical. I suppose I've contradicted myself, because R2R Dacs are bullsh** because of the nature of parts, however, if one has listened to Dacs made by DCS and Ayre, it is hard to take most of the stuff posted about here seriously.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

DCS Ring dac converters are also similar to the newer top level stuff from Burr Brown and Analog Devices, being hybrid, which are part R2R and part DS, (Delta Sigma, 1bit, Single Bit, ESS, Bitstream) or whatever other pseudo names DS has.

Burr Brown/ Texas Instruments, Analog Devices now are doing "hybrids" with their better d/a converters, 4 or so bits of R2R and the rest DS. This makes them more expensive to make than DS but said to sound better, yet still no where near as expensive to make as full R2R was, the reason R2R was dropped in the first place and 1 bit DS (delta sigma) took over, because it was very much cheaper to manufacturer than R2R.

But things seem to be going full circle again and R2R is being shown for what it is, bit perfect for converting PCM, where DS is just a facsimile.

And many Dac makers are now doing full R2R again in "discrete form", and the results of the good ones are better than the last of the great full R2R converter chips from AD Texas/Burr Brown ect ect

Cheers George
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