DAC comparison

@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. 

Eric -

Basics of what you are referring to (charged caps) is in Analog Devices MT-0156: "Basic DAC Architectures 2" by Walt Kester

I have no opinion on their sound. Not nearly enough experience, yet.

For the record, some very old DACs, with a new digital front end (USB, clock, processing - spit out to DAC) can be superb. I refer to mine as "franken DACs" for short.

I've never heard the ARC, but I did get a chance to compare the Shitt Yggy vs my old Peachtree DAC-iT and it doesn't come close.  The Yggy was edgy and nowhere near as musical as my 7 year old Peachtree.

I have a friend with the Border Patrol DAC. He brought it over to my system to compare with my Yggy which, at the time, was my primary DAC. The BP was much warmer sounding with a laid back presentation. I was actually surprised by how different they sounded since most DACs I’ve tried have a very similar tonal balance. I think in the right system, the BP could be a good choice, particularly for the money.

I’ve since upgraded to a Denafrips Terminator Plus (original Terminator first). These DACs have a very similar tonal balance to the Yggy but are much smoother with more detail and significantly better imaging.

I don’t have any experience with the ARC DACs.