Next best exponential DAC quality level?

@martinman , I typed two responses, but when they posted, they both came out blank so I deleted them. Maybe a browser issue.

The $99 DAC obviously lacks electrical isolation that will ensure the best performance in all systems, but the chip in that DAC is the result of decades of integration, and modern semiconductor processes and advancements in how to make a DAC. The advancements are not as dramatic as digital semiconductors over 30 years, but they are substantial hence why a $99 high performing DAC is possible. The chip does not require $1000's of supporting components around it to extract near its best performance assuming fidelity to the original analog signal is your goal. If you want instead art, that is going to cost you big bucks, and like any art, you may like it or you may not.

Yes I have Hint6 and also has 3 different dacs SimAudio moon 380D Cambridge Azur 851N and cocktail Audio X45 

all four sound almost alike just a little tiny differences 

@martinman:

It's regrettable that you inadvertently stepped on a hornet's nest. 

The best approach would be to listen to DACs at various price points and of various architectures in your system and let your ears decide. DACs cover quite a wide spectrum, in terms of sonic presentation so it's a matter of personal taste. You can't learn what will most please your ears from anyone else-- you have to listen and figure that out for yourself! 

OP, I have had a Schiit Bifrost for a few years and it sounds good. I bought a Hegel H390 and the built in DAC sounds every bit as good as the Bifrost. I just bought a Denafrips Pontus ll and it blows both other DAC’s out it the water. Is it the different tech, or is it that the Pontus ll costs more? Maybe, but they are all sound great and they all sound different.

JD

Agree @curiousjim I just bought a Pontus II myself. It's by far the best digital I have heard in my system.

Oz