thanks for the responses. as I mentioned, I'm actually looking for an 'interface' (musicians use them to convert their audio signals into digital for use with 'digital audio workstations' (like protools). in other words, this ain't 'high end'. I can't imagine any mass-market interface will use the R2R chips... the one I'm leaning towards (audient id14) uses burr-brown, and a very popular one (apogee duet) uses sabre. interestingly, some people don't like the way the apogee boosts highs and lows, which fits what Coli wrote.
burr-brown vs. sabre vs. ?
just curious if any people here have experience-based impressions the differences various converter chips make, assuming they're roughly the same vintage. I'm looking to buy a digital interface for digitizing LPs; it's a more mass, consumer-driven (not high end) type of market, so features are pretty uniform at any given price point, which makes me wonder if the different chips have a 'sound'. put another way: if you were choosing an interface for audiophile purposes (my preference in 'neutral', when it comes to component choice), would you gravitate towards any particular manufacturer?