The Saber dac has become popular with many Mfgers most likely because of it's ease and wide range of applications ... It's easier to implement in a wider variety of application ... sort of like the Swiss Army knife of Dacs
What's just as important as the type of dac, is how it is implemented in the circuit ... the quality of the clock and power supplies used and placement in the circuit (close to incoming signal) can all have an effect on the Dacs performance
I have to agree with member Ballen on the importance of the analog output section and will see him on that point and raise him with the importance of a high quality power supply
Poor power delivery will cause clock and dac timing to vary ... which will result in jitter and degrade the sound
..."ok then, #$%^ the dac, comment on the analog stages"...
As far as the analog output sections I see 4 basic types
Type 1 .... Op amp chip based .... problem is when a sudden high current demand is called for on the musical peak ... the little chip Op amp can run short on power momentarily and ... because the Op amps are in a negative feedback loop in the analog section ... when they run short of power they create an oscillation in the negative feedback loop ... because the feedback loop can't create the proper balance of incoming signal to outgoing signal
This momentary oscillation due to power shortage in the feedback loop causes an audible ringing on the peaks ... and can be perceived in the presentation on the peaks as .... ringing ... momentarily narrowing/congealing of sound stage ... limiting of dynamics and in general a screechy or shout -t-ness on the end of the Peak ...but only momentarily ... under normal load none of this is occurs
This distortion is brief and momentary and occurs only on the peaks when the Op amps can't deliver the current needed to supply the Feedback loop and drive your Inter Connects ... your system sounds fine then the demanding peak comes along and it goes to Hell in a hand basket for a brief moment and you think it's your system's amp that is running out of horse power ...
No you don't need a new power amp it's your CD player's Op amp running out of current
Substituting a Op amp with discrete components vs the all on one Chip based Opamp can offer some improvement ... but you're still in that Cranky Negative Feedback Loop
Type 2 .... Op amps buffered by tubes in the output section ...." Two wrong don't make a right" ... now your adding the Tube's distortion to that of the Op amp's problems and you are still in a Negative Feedback loop .... moving on
Type 3 .... Discrete Class "A" no Negative Feedback Tube based output section ... No Op amps to run out of steam or Feedback loop to Oscillate ... just have to pick your flavor of tubes ... sorry I'm not a TUBE guy so I can't help here
Type 4 .... Discrete Class "A" no Negative Feedback Solid State FET output ... No Op amps. No Feedback Loop. and less complicated and expensive than the learning curve required to get tubes right
Just some thoughts on Dacs ... I think all 1 bit Delta Sigma dacs sound about the same ... it is the power supply and analog out sections that contribute more to the players sound than the Dac
Take a player and rotate all the different Delta Sigma dacs available, in and out of the players and the players' will probably all sound the same ...
Take your ESS dac and put it in any number of players with different analog out sections and power supplies types (switching vs Linear) and it will sound different in every machine
HTH
