how good are the non os dacs?

thanks for the responses so far, i am getting a great impression of pros to this design and the limits of its capability. mr. tennis, since you own the one i want, how pleased are you with it and do you feel it was a good investment? nill the pill, which one do you have? thanks again for the input

Undertow did a very good job of describing what I hear as differences between the two... He said it better than I could have. NOS dacs have plenty of detail, but as he stated OS dacs produce a soundstage that seems more airy or larger in an artificial way...

hi dj:

i don't think much of it in its present state. it needs all silver wire and rcas removed. at that point i will have a better idea whether it is a good dac.

Hi Djwilbourn,

I have a Zanden 5000 Signature DAC (Non OS) and a Metronome C2A signature DAC (OS)

ok,so i have spent some time listening to a buddy's higher end system and liked his digital sound. came back to mine with a known cd and noticed that mine does many things well. however, i was able to pinpoint what annoys me about the sound. distortion in dynamic passages, especially in the upper treble. mine sounds good until there is strong burst of dynamic energy. so is this the fault of the power supply, op amps or what. in addition what dac/player do you guys recommend under 600.00 that can combine smoothness and handle these dynamic passages. thanks again