R2R next? Don't like ESS

I've become more interested in trying a modern day R2R dac & have been exploring some tube dacs as well. Basically something outside the standard chip sets. I have a budget of $3k but think around $2k would give me the same results. The Lampi's & Aqua's are way outside my budget but look like real winners. There are just a plethora of Dacs to choose from. Dacs for days. 

I've never put much priority towards a dac in the past. I've had burr-brown, wolfson chips, logics, Lexichip2, AKM's, but not sure I actually ever bought a product based solely on its chip used. I've been using a Sabre dac the last couple years in a RME dac. It's all of the bells & whistles of the RME that has made it hard for me to move on from. PEQ function has been a game changer for me. I much prefer it over the minidsp Dirac boxes I've tried in my signal chain. A good tube preamp has helped me overlook some of my subjective feelings on chip/sabre dacs. 

Straight wire with gain approach doesn't interest me as much these days. I'm not opposed to any components that "color" the sound as long as I find it appealing to my ears. The last few weeks I've been looking over all the regular mainstream R2R dacs that have been all the rage or in the reviewer headlines. Gustard R26, Holo Cyan, Denafrips, Laiv. I'm kind of leaning towards the Pontus 15th. But I always have to consider is this dac just the flavor of the month in its price category. With it's short return window & origin of manufacturing I consider it a product that once you buy it..it's yours. If I don't like it I'll surely end up having to sell it for a loss. 

I've looked into Border Patrol dacs & more recently a company called Prometheus Audio. They sell TVC (transformer) volume control products but have a couple of very good priced dacs using non-oversampling TDA1545 chips. One of their models uses tubes as well. Other tube dacs I that I see getting great user review love made by Lab12 & MHDT. I really enjoy any kit project and the ANK's look interesting. 

With my budget I'm thinking the Pontus 15th might be the safe bet. For like half that price I could give something like that TDA1545 tube dac a try. Though I haven't seen any user reviews. Maybe it's because I don't swim in the ultra expensive end of the dac pool that I don't consider Sabre dacs to not be transparent or lacking information. Objective data on my current sabre dac says to me that it is very transparent. I'm definitely to the point of trying something different..modern tube or R2R. I am curious if modern R2R is truly different than what a good AKM/Sabre based dac can give me. I expect that a tube based analog output is definitely different. 

"@mattw73 Straight wire with gain approach doesn’t interest me as much these days."

Agree. A good DAC and good preamp can sure help bring out the sound. Not sure why some folks believe no preamp or a minimalist dac is better sounding. Tried it many times and find this approach to be much less engaging. To each his own.

"@mattw73 Straight wire with gain approach doesn’t interest me as much these days."
Agree. A good DAC and good preamp can sure help bring out the sound. Not sure why some folks believe no preamp or a minimalist dac is better sounding. 

At the risk of raining on your solidarity, there are virtues to a non-tube preamp. I have both a SS preamp that adds virtually nothing and also a nice tubey 6SN7 preamp.  I've also spent a fair amount of time listening to a very neutral autoformer based preamp.

What does a neutral preamp give me? 

• For one thing, additional detail. More complex music has better separation between instruments and cleaner highs. It may lack some "warmth" in the mids but if there is a tube or Class A amp coming after it, I get the warmth there.
• Another is, well, neutrality. What is my amp contributing? Or a tube change? Or a cable? There is nothing contributed by the preamp so that variable is removed.
• It stays on all the time, ready to go. Not a big deal but nice. No tubes to worry about or replace.

Then I put the tube preamp back in and a bunch of other enjoyments occur.

It's trade offs, really. But one can have a neutral preamp and not be lacking in many of the things people like about tubes.

I agree that ESS isn't for everyone - sometimes it just a chip specific thing. For instance, some people find AKM velvet sound chips too mellow regardless of the implementation.

My setup now includes a Holo audio dac which is my end dac - really like it.

However, I did consider some other R2R Dacs including those from Audio-GD, who have brought many R2Rs to market and are fans of Burr Brown. 

Website: http://audio-gd.com/Products-EN.htm

Not everyone's cup of tea but perhaps worth some research since their price point is certainly reasonable. 

@hilde45 I agree with you.. & perhaps I worded my thoughts poorly. I certainly wasn't implying that tubes or any type of topology was better or worse than another. As much as I like to switch things up I often find myself going back to the shortest most transparent signal path I have available. At the moment in my digital set-up I'm going straight from Dac to amp. This is where I find myself just enjoying the music & not thinking much at all about the components. 

I didn't mean for my current thoughts of straight wire with a gain to come off like a negative. I'm just more open to trying something that may be deliberately not as transparent or without the lowest THD. I don't mean something broken or with poorly engineered noise. Utmost transparency, neutrality, lowest noise floor, is normally what most try to achieve I believe or thought. I feel that saying I'm open to trying a tube dac or old R2R technology could lead to some people thinking "why?".  It's certainly not because I don't value or appreciate a neutral or balanced presentation. I'm also not saying that all R2R or tube dacs can't achieve that..I don't have the experience to say one way or the other. I do lack experience with different types of dacs.. especially anything outside of what I guess is basic low cost delta sigmas. I had been under the belief that I didn't need anything different or "better" than that.