AKM makes the best DACs

I know very little about DAC chips - ask me how to make one, or explain the design  differnces between them, and you will get a blank stare from me. And likely the same response from most others.

OP said he noticed his DAC purchases unintentionally favored AKM. Similarly, I have not based purchases on which chip is used. I have/had gear with BurrBrown (like that very much), AKM (like that very much too), ESS (didnt like), and Cirrus (didn't like). Did these chips effect the sound of any particular piece of gear... how could I possibly know, because DACs are built around the chip, so there is no A-B testing with multiple chips in the same unit - except maybe DIY. Haven't had the pleasure of trying ladder or FPGA DACs.

I have a question about DACs that use multiple stereo-capable (2-independent channels) DAC chips = 4-channels of DAC (sometimes more). How are the 4+ ch used in a 2-ch device? Are they running parallel, then averaged? Or are they run parallel then errors eliminated? Does each handle a specific frequency range? Are they double-processing in series? How are 4+ ch best used to decode 2-ch of audio?

Chord qutest. Fpga all the way! 

Hi @mwatsme 

These are some pretty cool designs.  I've seen up to 8 channels on a single DAC chip, and all of them run in parallel.  The answer is all channels get the same input and the output is averaged. I think I've even seen them run in differential mode.  That is, 4 channels do + and 4 do -

In all cases the idea is that any manufacturing errors get averaged out. If you not only run in parallel but also differential you get even a better chance of reducing errors due to manufacturing.

Hi @Carlsbad,

Field Programmable Gate Arrays are really cool, but because they are uniquely programmable by each manufacturer we can't really make any general comments about them. Is there a particular brand which uses them you like?