Least expensive discrete resistor ladder NOS DAC?

wharfy,

old as as in a chip that’s not being made anymore. Way back at the beginning of CD, before oversampling was a thing, I had a Meridian MCD. It was the first “audiophile” CD player, and used a Phillips DAC chip that, I believe, was only 14 bits. It sounded really good!

Is there any reason you are looking for NOS??  The 'no moving parts' aspect of a DAC would limit the number of things that are likely to go wrong (generally electrolytic capacitors, which can be replaced), and the lifespan should be quite long.  I have a DAC with the UA 20400, and while not discrete resistor, I think it was hand trimmed resistors.  Really delivers a wonderful sound, and available in DACs from several vendors - Stax, VTL, and Sonic Frontiers.  Directed at Redbook, and likely within your budget.  Sometimes older is better .....

The nuprime dac 10 has a resistor lader technology at it preamp stage,  it's really good. It cost 1500 new. 

The nuprime dac 10 has a resistor lader technology

Sorry but that’s a resistor ladder for the volume control, not for D to A conversion. For that they use a Sabre delta sigma converter, which is not R2R ladder Multibit.

Cheers George

So, what's your recommended R2R NOS DAC du jour.
Updating from an internal McIntosh MX122 and need a few suggestions.