Ladder dacs are very popular now, so companies are making them. Nothing wrong with that, but remember some of the best sounding dacs ever made used "off the shelf" chips. The older top-line Esoterics used AKM, as did APL. I believe Audio Note dacs use chips and the reviewers can't stop raving. Personally, I would buy what sounds good to you and forget about the design, unless it bugs you to the point where you can't enjoy it.
DAC general question
As I understand it the actual DA function is done by a single chip. If true do all these DAC makers use custom chips or are there limited manufacturers of the chips? If so then the goodness or badness of a DAC is dependent on the circuitry around the chip.
Am I wrong?
Am I wrong?