R2R Ladder DACs or All in One Streamer Solutions

I bought my MHDT Labs Orchid because I'm all about the flavor of the month.  I could care less how it sounds, I just want to be one of the cool kids.  So yeah, I got rid of my Auralic Vega (much newer and a lot more features, but no cool factor) and kept the Orchid.  What are these chip things you guys are talking about anyways?  My Orchid runs on NOS, like my Honda Accord.

How much less? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpVpIaC6QrM&ab_channel=JohnCleese

Dacs are probably the least important part of the reconstruction chain. Any modern 24 or 32 bit DS dac implemented by a competent design team is all you need. Actually I haven’t the faintest idea what DAC chip I’m using other than I know it’s DS and frankly don’t care. I hear no distortion or noise in the quiet parts of classical music nor the banging of rock. R2R chips can be implemented to be indistinguishable from mediocre newer chips and I doubt I could hear a difference but it seems that isn’t the goal of these types of DACs they want a sound signature not a transparent reproduction of the source. To answer the OP question get a all in one and quit worrying about what DAC chip it has.

Formed in 2002: Music Heaven Development Team (MHDT):

ABOUT THE BRAND, old article. Still in business in 2020.

The gang of four founded Mhdt Lab in 2002 and are known as: ‘"Music Heaven Development Team".

They had decided to begin designing DACs to bring the feeling and fun back to digital. Motivated by the shortcomings of most DACs to faithfully convey, with spirit, varying styles of music, they have successfully created affordable great sounding and flexible little gems. Asynchronous and synchronous inputs, BNC, USB, RCA, and Toslink. The best of R-2R Burr-Brown PCM56P-J DACs, and a single NOS GE5670 vacuum tube buffered output stage in its circuit design brings the soul into the digital realm.

“‘Less is more’ is still the major rule we follow in our designs. By using the PCM56P, and due to its current output, we can omit the use of amplification (the op-amp), which provides a purer signal than can be achieved with a more complicated circuit.”

Along with Burr-Brown PCM chips, the Philips TDA1541 series chips were imbedded into the mhdt designs as being another 16-bit chip that produced a very musical and enjoyable result. More bits isn't always better. 

More bits isn’t always better.

Correct, RedBook, 16/44, 24/96, or DXD, done with R2R Multibit and done right is "Bit Perfect", where DS (Delta Sigma, 1-Bit, Bit-Stream, Single Bit), is just a facsimile. But it does do DSD, but then there a few discrete R2R Multibit dacs out now that can also do DSD now.

To me the best Delta Sigma dac chip I’ve heard doing RedBook, was one that used a Delta Sigma Burr Brown dac chip in a YBA Dac and Shanling CD , but it was a Hybrid, having the first 4 bits as multibit but the rest taken over with Delta Sigma, that was the Burr Brown PCM1794 or 94 or 98?

It seems to me that TI (Texas Instruments/Burr Brown) with their later dacs "are coming about face" to R2R again and doing these 4 bit Hybrids, instead of their full Delta Sigma PCM1738 etc, as to do full R2R (eg PCM1702/1704etc) is going back to very high costs again because of the manufacturing of them eg: laser trimming all those R2R resistors.) Where doing 4 bit is not too expensive but gives increased sound quality.

Cheers George