Dac Technology Mature?

Wow;Melbourne;

That response is one of the most complete answers with examples that I have read on this site

Your comment on Modularity for future proof is a nice one.
Ps Audio touts the software upgrade as future proof, but they have 10 different models and continue to expand models vs pick “ a” model and work on one over 20 years, ie A Camry or Accord model 

Many thanks

I am currently, not sure of DAC technology.
It appears we are being overwhelmed with technical details for marketing to grab our $$$ and differentiate products.
ThAt is a sign of a mature market

But, but The DSD side really has my attention, but no place to listen to & Real expensive
I’ve heard just a few SACD albums and like the sound.
I have be officially “ marketed “ and stabbed.

I’m really dumbfounded as a nice sound from a  dac can be $250 to $89,000.......,....,,


jeff

+10000 @melbguyone fantastic response!

Yes. Quite mature. There is now an effort to go backwards towards 20 year old DAC technology like R-2R. This is a sure sign that the market is saturated with mature products. There are simply are a lot of good DACs out there.

I think there will always be variations in sound quality, just like there are in preamps and amps. 

Now, is it mature? Over the past 10 years many DACs have stepped up. The tell for me is Redbook playback. It is suddenly MUCH better than before, and now Hi-Rez recordings don't hold the large improvement in sound quality they used to. One example of just before this cut-off is the ARC DAC 8. It really is mediocre with Redbook, but great with 96/24.

The Mytek Brooklyn is always better than the DAC 8 in all formats, and has a much smaller step (if any) from 44/16 to 96/24 or DSD. 

@frozentundra @jond Thanks for your kind words. PS Audio make some nice gear, though their designs as you pointed out have limited upgradeability. I see firmware updates for the dac as a kind of pandora’s box; you could just as easily subjectively move forward as backwards in sound.

A fully modular dac offers greater flexibility and would be more future proof which helps protect your investment. Vitus for example are offering a dac/streamer module for the new Vitus RI-101 integrated amp which supports Airplay, Roon, MQA, Tidal, Spotify, etc. And i’m told they are planning to offer a streamer module for my player in future.

Picking up on Shadorne’s comment, remember it’s all about implementation. And that comes down to the skill of the designer and the company’s manufacturing capacity. As I said, the digital part (incl: the dac chips) in total would contribute no more than about 15% or so to the complete sound. The psu and analog stage, combined with pcb layout matters more.