Are "vintage" DAC's worthwhile, or is this a tech that does not age well

@jond
I have no idea.  I am only able to guess at changes and the date.  The big feature that is different pre/post this period (and 2010 is a guess due to lack of enough samples) is the sudden improvement in Redbook playback, and the vanishing gap between Redbook and high resolution files after this.

DAC's before 2010 were almost universally worse sounding with Redbook than with high resolution files.

i don't agree with this - it is contrary to my own findings

I still use my Weiss DAC202 which I have since 2011 and I am not changing it any time soon. The DAC chip(s) influences the sound of the DAC but there are other factors that are just as important, like the quality of the clock and jitter control cct, the power supplies, the analogue stages, the overall quality of the design, the components used and much more. I agree with most, DACs do sound different but the whole system should be resolving enough to let you hear the difference.

I definitely don’t agree with the pre 2010 Dacs sound worse playing Redbook CD. @Jond his Audio Note DAC and my Yamamoto DAC are pre 2010 models. They are wonderful with Redbook and sonically compete with or exceed many current generation DACs. So it seems that the listening experiences differs amongst us.
Charles

@eric_squires wrote:

I suspect this has to do with much more accurate clocks and anti-jitter technology in the underlying silicon.

My experience with my stable of DACs is that the DAC itself is the least important component - anything can b made to sound good, or bad. I agree with the above about timing and jitter, but have a hard time proving it with measurements and sufficient subjective data, but am trying.

Other stuff matters a lot too - power supplies, ground isolation, filters, analog drivers, blah blah. All lots of work too :-(

Its very similar with active devices. People go off on mosfets vs JFETS vs BJTs vs whatever. In general all my designs, using all the above sound more similar than different, unless I f-ed something up.

Another good DAC for the money, BTW is the Allo revolution with the USB bridge and excellent power supply (theirs or yours, been down both roads), if you can deal with their kit-car mentality, documentation (lack), customer service (lack) etc.

I suspect itss why i have finally made my 30-year-old Theta DSpro II sound so good - the clock, USB I/F, SPDIF I/F, power supply, are all mine. And the basic DAC and analog filter were top notch (well there are chip buffers, but very good ones), and there's no magic in either.

G