Are "vintage" DAC's worthwhile, or is this a tech that does not age well

There was an almost identical thread recently.  You ought to look it up.  I wont repeat the lengthy post i made, but i will say:
1. I have no dog in this fight, yet.2. I totally disagree that DACs sound alike. And i run single blind experiments all the time.3. Some excellent old DACs still can equal or outperform many current DACs. I have two that do, from 1991 and 19994. Lots of DACs are datasheet engineered and suck. The fact that they get good (typically user anecdotal) reviews supports the hypothesis that its all snake oil. LISTEN!5. Overall, tat said, DACs have progressed steadily over the years6. Most advances int he last 10 years have been in up/oversampling algorithms and timing/jitter, IMNSHO.

BTW DACs have no wear parts to speak of except for electrolytic caps, typically only a few int eh power supply. So they can last a long time. The DAC caps are mostly ceramic and film which last pretty much forever.
G

@eric_squires wrote:

I suspect this has to do with much more accurate clocks and anti-jitter technology in the underlying silicon.

My experience with my stable of DACs is that the DAC itself is the least important component - anything can b made to sound good, or bad. I agree with the above about timing and jitter, but have a hard time proving it with measurements and sufficient subjective data, but am trying.

Other stuff matters a lot too - power supplies, ground isolation, filters, analog drivers, blah blah. All lots of work too :-(

Its very similar with active devices. People go off on mosfets vs JFETS vs BJTs vs whatever. In general all my designs, using all the above sound more similar than different, unless I f-ed something up.

Another good DAC for the money, BTW is the Allo revolution with the USB bridge and excellent power supply (theirs or yours, been down both roads), if you can deal with their kit-car mentality, documentation (lack), customer service (lack) etc.

I suspect itss why i have finally made my 30-year-old Theta DSpro II sound so good - the clock, USB I/F, SPDIF I/F, power supply, are all mine. And the basic DAC and analog filter were top notch (well there are chip buffers, but very good ones), and there's no magic in either.

G