DAC comparison

@ghdprentice 

You have an amazing dac in the refcd9se. The Dac8 is nowhere close. In fact, if you heard them both in your system you might wonder what was going on at ARC at the time. It was a reasonable dac if fed a low jitter signal through spdif/aes but its usb implementation was ill conceived.

Aside from ring dacs (i.e. dCS)  I wouldn't touch a DAC more than 10 years old. 

How about the well-known Philips TDA 1541A S1 or S2?  Very analoguously musical even it can only decode 16 bit.

I've been test driving cars. The Audi S5 and S6 are illustrative / representative of the same. Uber competent. Yet missing more than something [for me].  : )

It’s called Porsche.  That’s what you’re missing. 

@soix 

I've been test driving cars. The Audi S5 and S6 are illustrative / representative of the same. Uber competent. Yet missing more than something [for me].  : )

Indeed. Audi makes a fine car (my wife drives Audi Allroads after years in BMW's) but they are FWD biased, even if power is being delivered to all four wheels. 

Indeed. Audi makes a fine car (my wife drives Audi Allroads after years in BMW's) but they are FWD biased, even if power is being delivered to all four wheels. 
 

@ghasley I agree totally.  Audi makes a fine performance car for the masses (R8 or 10 excluded), but if it’s passion you’re after — sorry, Porsche — no substitute.