Question About DACs

@headphonedreams 
 

I would not trust measurements very much for dacs, there are very good sounding dacs that don't measure that well and dacs with good measurements that don't seem to sound that well.  

 Measurements are 100% accurate in predicting sound quality in DACs if you listen to them blind. Knowing the brand, looks, price, etc. all influence your perception, high no one is immune to. If I play the same DAC, one costing $300 in a cheap plastic enclosure and the other costing $3000 in a nice metal enclosure, I bet most people here will say the latter sounds better. 

@georgehifi

I know how it works. The fact is I don’t belive there is any R2R DAC under $1000 that can compete with the $250 SMSL SU-8 for instance. And as an example, Soekris dac1421 measurements, if the performance of a $100 DAC for $1000 is was you call bit-perfect, then so be it. Even better: HoloAudio Spring "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3 D/A processor Measurements, a $2500 R2R DAC with jitter issues, great, as a comparison, a $750 DAC/headphone amp with Bluetooth from Arcam.

The fact is I don’t belive

That is your belief, and your entitled to it. 

@georgehifi - I’m afraid you need to learn more about DACs. The only DAC that would play the bits back as they’re stored on a compact disc is an R-2R with no oversampling. None of the Schiit DACs fit this description for 16 bit / 44.1 kHz program material as they use an oversampling filter, either 4x or 8x. That means 75% - 87.5% of the samples fed to the DAC chip (which, incidentally, isn’t even a straightforward resistor ladder) are interpolated.

Most of the R-2R DACs which do not use oversampling also do not use a reconstruction filter, which introduces its own set of sonic aberrations.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sigma-delta quantitatively or qualitatively.

After spending close to $10 k on my system I still wasn’t happy with the sound. I took a chance and ordered a PS Audio direct stream Dac and like magic every thing and I mean everything I ran through it sounded nearly perfect. The Dac before that was a dsd ps audio too for $1200 but it was just ok. I love this new Dac so much that I ordered the JR. Version for my office to play on my smaller system. They are pricey but well worth it. Also make sure you get the bridge. I ended up ordering it later once I realized how Roon worked and now stream tidal and Qobuz all night through it when I get home.