DAC contest: Border Patrol Sei or Chord Qutest?

This is my original post called What's Up. And I'm the asshole? Go look at Jjss49's response. Not only will I stop following this crap, I'm leaving Audiogon completely. The jerk and his supporters can pretend it was me, but some of you are smart enough to figure out where this all went South.

Audio system source change suggestions? I’m considering options from a Border Patrol Sei SPDIF DAC back to the CD transport. Currently have Audio Sensibility’s Statement SE Coaxial 1.5m cable and the NuPrime CDT-9 with LPS power supply. On the other end of the system, it is all Odyssey Audio (Candela preamp, Khartago modified to Kismet level monoblock amps, and Kismet floor standing speakers).

How far up the food chain might I have to go with a CD transport and SPDIF cable to take the sound to the next level – improved imaging, soundstage, and tonal balance?

seems like this guy @swvaaudiofan takes time from kicking the dog and beating the wife to come here and spew...  sorry for the tit for tat, but since he called me out i will reply

he wanted advice on how he could swap out his nuprime cd transport and rca spdif cable to ’bring his sound to the next level’ ... got indignant and pissy when i suggested his border patrol dac was what he was hearing through his system, so i suggested maybe a more detailed, open, transparent dac like a qutest or gustard r26 might be ’next level’ for him -- but he took umbrage at that thought

well, to make him happy ... here we go... this will part the seas and stir the heavens ... 😁

@jjss49 imo, your dac advice was spot on if uber-detail and added transparency was a goal of the OP. Those are not characteristics my own Border Patrol SE-I dac is known for. Something I was completely aware of before purchasing mine.

To your point, my own BP SE-I dac sounds smoothed over, slightly less detailed, less spatial/open, and more focused on weighty midrange, body, gentle detail, with a moderately sized sound stage -vs-. my other Schiit Bifrost 2/64 R2R dac, for example. I enjoy both for completely different types of sound and presentations.

In my system BP killed Chord TT2/M-Scaler and it wasn't funny at all

because of the huge price difference... 

Those who are familiar with TDA 1541 chip and its use in many popular CD players 30 years ago made by Philips, Marantz, Rotel, Sony, Naim, Arcam, Sudgen and Cambridge probably know the SQ of this DAC chip better than I am. As with all DACs, the SQ is mainly determined by design and implementation but the quality of DAC chip matters too. TDA 1543 used in SE-I is the relatively lesser quality chip to its much more popular brother 1541 especially the double crown version. I had Rotel RCD 855 for a while that uses 1541. It sounds very musical, rich, laid back and has no digital glare and hence no listening fatique. I really enjoy it. But just like Steve mention, the modern DAC like Denafrips Ares (even being a R2R) will sound "definintely" more clear, transparent and vivid but less soulful and solid as one listens to the live music. My experience with Rotel 855 confirms that. So, how one likes the TDA 1541/1543 based DAC really depends on your taste and preference. Techinically, SEi only supports 24 bits PCM up to 96 khz and no DSD that limits its practicality. To me it is a deal breaker but YMMV.

@jjss49, there was nothing wrong with your response. Your assessment of the OP is spot on. He’s just trying to start some s#!+ and deserves to be ignored.