@routlaw sounds even better. To many obstacles in the path of the DAC's you tried.
I am glad you found a DAC that works for you, to bad you wondered in the digital desert for so long.
Echo’s End is the perfect DAC when you want music to flow just as it does in nature. You don’t get harshness or masking by digital “same-ness.” What you do get is an easy-to-use, fully automatic digital-to-analogue converter whose sole purpose is to provide the best possible audio quality. You won’t find external buttons, nor lights, nor animated display screens. Echo’s End is fully automatic. Just connect a digital source such as USB, S/PDIF, or AES/EBU, and Echo’s End will automatically find the signal and convert it to beautiful analog sound. At the outputs you have directly converted analog signal, with absolutely no components in the signal path. No chips, no op-amp buffers, no caps, no transformers, nor any tubes.
The sound quality is fantastic. We’ve incorporated on-board Firewall modules, a special technology for conditioning power developed and manufactured exclusively by LessLoss. This raises the sonic performance to unbelievable levels. All parts in the Echo’s End, both mechanical and electrical, are fixed directly to wood, and point-to-point soldering allows for the smoothest possible signal flow, ensuring the most liquid audio reproduction imaginable.