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

I definitely don’t agree with the pre 2010 Dacs sound worse playing Redbook CD. @Jond his Audio Note DAC and my Yamamoto DAC are pre 2010 models. They are wonderful with Redbook and sonically compete with or exceed many current generation DACs. So it seems that the listening experiences differs amongst us.
Charles

@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

I have a PS Audio Ultralink I purchased in 1995. Stereophile Class A over $2 grand at the time and as good as there was back then. I just purchased a Schiit Modi 3+ which is a highly regarded inexpensive dac today. No contest..The Ultralink sounds better and not by just a little bit. Most folks just consider the digital technology, the chip. My experience indicates the analog section probably plays a greater role in the sound quality than people think.. Just my humble opinion..

@runkster, 
Your "humble opinion" is on the mark in my opinion 😊. For some reason the crucial analogue output stage is frequently overlooked and downplayed. Conversely the DAC chips are over credited in determining sound quality.  

I'm not surprised that the older PS Audio Ultealink sounds better than the Schitt Modi, Not at all. I'd bet the  Ultealink very likely has better quality  analogue output stage and power supply. 
Charles 

I wouldn’t disqualify older DAC's, there are some fine DAC's that were made in the past.

However, you need to ask yourself some questions, such as: do you want DSD\MQA or maybe even Ethernet connection?

If your answer is yes to one of the above then you probably find the answer in newer DAC's

The big difference in DAC sound in the analog output, while you can argue that all DAC'S are doing the same (converting digital information) there are several methods for that which will affect the sounding, but the biggest sound different relay in the analog section which in the end is responsible for the signal that gets out of the DAC – and there, not all are created equal.