R2R next? Don't like ESS

Oddiofyl doing god’s work to turn a generation of South Korean salarymen and their children against audiogon forums. 

Though not R2R i figured I would just ask in this thread first...Does anyone have any experience with the Fezz Audio Equinox tube dac.."Empowered by Lampizator"? 

Any Fezz Audio product users in this thread? 

I have been through a few DACs.  Different chip types do have a certain sound character, but the same chip type can sound completely different, depending on the implementation and output stage (I may not be using the correct technical terms, I am not an engineer).

I will say that if I were to rank the different chip types I've heard, it would look like this in terms of descending sound quality.

FPGA
AKM
R2R
ESS

If you're going to limit yourself to a "starter" DAC (a budget might be more helpful to qualify what that means to you), then you're going to get different sounding starting DACs.  They will have less drive, dynamics, detail, and musicality than the better DACs.  

The MHDT Orchid is a good recommendation in what I would consider entry level.  It has a nice "analog" like sound that is very easy to listen to.  It's an R2R DAC with a tube.  You can roll the tube, as well as the chip to change the sound and there are other ways to modify it if you're so inclined.  Customer support is top notch as well.

I like the sound of the DAC in my TEAC NT-501 streamer/DAC, but there have been reliability issues with the network cards.  If you're using USB input, that would be a good option and you could probably find a reasonably priced used one.  I would not recommend one if you want to use an ethernet connection.  It has more drive and detail than the Orchid.  

I think you're better off saving up for a higher end DAC, which in my case ended up being a Rockna Wavedream Signature DAC, which is FPGA based.  It was a significant improvement in sound quality over the Aqua La Voce S3 FPGA DAC I previously owned, which in turn was better than the Orchid or the TEAC. 

When you get to the level of the Rockna or similar DACs, I think you're in the "sweet spot", where your extra investment provides a significant and easily noticeable improvement in sound quality, while when spending more you start to get into the land of diminishing returns and/or audio jewelry.  

I think ESS chips get a bad rap because they are used in a lot of inexpensive dacs. 

I had a SMSL VMV D1SE dac with ESS chips. A nice dac for $700. I went to a more expensive r2r dac and it was better.  I went to an even more expensive dac with ESS chips and it's notably better.  With it, my system sounds better than ever.  If you look at the design of my current dac, the chips are important, but as others have said, it's the overall implementation. 

DACs seem to be a balance of detail vs. musicality which are both attributes which can be good or bad. I personally haven't been able to tolerate the ESS chip based DACs I've heard so far as the detail gets edgy and digital. High sounds actually hurt my ears even if I can't distinguish the top edge. It isn't just ESS chip based DACs that cause problems for me. 

Right now, I'm using a PS Audio Directstream mk1 DAC which was modified in a couple of ways to sound close to the mk2. This is a FPGA based DAC which converts all incoming files to DSD. So far it is the perfect blend of significantly more detail than my previous DAC without edgy or bright sound.