Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

I realize that there are manufacturers who share this view but certainly not all do.

Maybe it’s because the ones that don’t Charles, can’t make "discrete R2R dac’s" as the complexity is many many times higher, and they also can’t get R2R dac chips ready made any more.
So they don’t have an option but to go to DS or DS hybrid, as these chips are available (and cheap) .
BTW: You don’t see anyone going to the trouble of doing a discrete DS or DS/hybrid do you? Why is that?

Cheers George  

@gdhal 

@sadono

You write with wisdom like a child, directly to the heart. I trust you will interpret my questions as genuine.

Simple yes/no questions if I may... no need to elaborate beyond yes/no but by all means do so if so inclined...

- does this 16 vs 24 bit "difference" effect your enjoyment of listening to music?

- are you able to discern a difference between 16/24 in a blind test (assuming you’ve tried)?

Thanks.

Yes and yes.

When properly processed, 24 bit masters have greater tone, harmonics, and lower distortion than Redbook CD. Far more analog like.

@sadono

Thank you.

George,
Precisely why I addressed my inquiry to Steve N who by all accounts has been successful manufacturing R2R and DS DACs and is a credentialed source. There are unquestionably other builders capable of using either circuit type in DACs. Since he is a knowledgeable contributor to this thread I was interested in his opinion of multibit/R2R "bit perfect " practical or real  world  audible attributes. .
Charles

Steve N who by all accounts has been successful manufacturing R2R and DS DACs and is a credentialed source

Yes Charles but as I said not discrete R2R. he has to use either DS or the Hybrid.
Or he could purchase "discrete" R2R made boards from Sokeris Audio Engineering but he’ll loose his dsd capability, which means nothing to me, as it was pcm before it became that.


Here as of 2017 (more now) are the companies now doing expensive to produce "discrete" R2R ladder dacs for PCM (Redbook) replay. Schiit uses a R2R chip (not for audio) but for missile guidance as there are none now available for audio use, because DS was so much cheaper to make.

Up to $3k: Border Patrol, Monarchy, Denafrips, Audio-gd, MHDT, Holo, Soeskris, Metrum, Schiit

$5-$15K: Audio Note, MSB, Metrum, Computer Audio Design, Aqua, LessLoss, Totaldac, Lampizator

$15K+: CH Precision, Aries Cerat, Light Harmonic, Audio Note, MSB, Totaldac, Lampizator

**Special mention to MSB, Monarchy and Audio Note, who never gave up R2R. Even after the takeover of delta-sigma.



Cheers George