Playback Designs Merlot dac

Does not use off the Shelf Chips. Its proprietary codes belong to Andreas Koch.

I used to own the MSB Analog & Platinum DACs, both at the same time as one was allocated for my office whilst the other for my Main listening room. I sold both and purchased 2 Of the Merlot that should give you some idea.

Fair enough, that's very high praise.  How is it with 16 bit 44.1 audio? Most my files are lossless CD rips.

Pretty good up to the level as DAVE. However the Formula DAC which is at 14K is better by a small margin especially on Air Between notes.

PS Audio Direct stream has a lot in common with playback  designs for their 
Master engineer gave the gifted software engineer from Microsoft
A lot of knowledge in DSD, design  ptogrammable software 
Which is how they operate native DSD, their new Huron firmware upgrade is Very Good. IMO an exceptional dac and for far lower money then most of their peers.