DAC Question: Delta-Sigma vs R2R

GIGO, garbage in, garbage out. The real test is what you consider garbage. If you have normal hearing, whatever that is, then you need to know your taste. Reviewers generally need to sell advertising and if they slam a product they risk a loss of an income stream. Beyond that, do you know their predictions? If not, even if they are honest their advice may be worthless to you. I think that you were well advised not to go by the type of DAC it is. One point that I would make though is to always try to make your next purchase your last amp, DAC, preamp, etc. If not you are going to spend far more than had you saved up for forever gear. I have wasted a ton of money because I settled, or tried to buy gear to compensate for system issues. YMMV

@larsman both of those components are essentially colorless; they add no warmth but they are not dry and clinical - they do a great job of delivering the source, so the main effect on my sound is the DAC, and that's where I'm using the Holo May R2R DAC. 

I have deliberately adopted an opposite approach as I've mentioned.  In my weaker moments I lust after an AGD Audion (class D) amp, which I suspect might be a bit humourless despite some people comparing them favourably to SET amps. This is bad - I do not like the SET amp signature sound.

Some distortion would be needed and should I be in a pleasant mood for a change it would be a toss up between a Holo May KTE or a Denafrips Terminator.  The folk at Holo are disciples of certain funky marketing gimmicks which does not impress me.

@mod_asored, Your DAC Question is Delta-Sigma vs R2R. The technology is a great question but the better question is what DAC sounds best in your system. The above posts provide many answers except this most important question. I suggest you audition some of these DAC’s in your system. Of course, the above DAC’s are excellent options but there are many others to consider.

Got back into two channel after a 7 year hiatus. Found a great combo of a class a amplifier and Fyne audio speakers.  The dac was the Aqua audio, priced at over 8k.  More than the speakers.  Tested the system again without knowing the dac. Mbl delta sigma that cost more than the whole system.   So I read reviews on multiple r to r and mainly are bought directly from Chinese companies.  Since they had a us distributor and would service locally bought the audio gd r 7.  Everything the Aqua audio has and more as I love the nos mode but can increase the os mode easily for more detail. At 3100. Not cheap, but hardly using turntable which was my preference

@tennisdoc56 I have looked at the Audio GD R7 (R2R) and it is similar to the Soekris DAC2541 (R2R) in that they both employ FPGA technology.

Both are very good of course but the presence of FPGA introduces some issues which I’d prefer to avoid. That’s just me, of course, and FPGA is slightly off topic.

[The Soekris DAC 1101 had FPGA.  So did the model that replaced it, 1321.  Then 1421.  Then 1521. Now 2541. 

So much for simply just having to upgrade the program in the FPGA chip.

And that is all I have to say about that]