I have two non-oversampling DACs, mhdt Paradisea and Constantine. I have no idea how they measure, but the sound quality speaks for itself and both compete well with anything at any price that I have heard to date.
The Paradisea has a tube output stage and the resulting sound will vary greatly depending on specific tube used, I have found.
No doubt there are many implementation details with DACs that matter, but frankly, most newer DACs I hear these days tend to sound quite good overall. That was not so much the case I think just 5-10 years ago. SO maybe DAC designs have matured quite well of late and excellent performance not hard to find? Kind of like how most modern computers are well suited to leverage the internet? OR most digital cameras can take very high quality photos that would have cost a lot more to produce in teh past with older technologies?
DACs are pervasive and are used everywhere similarly these days, so that would not surprise me at all if good sounding DACs are commodity items now these days for the most part.
Not to say that any two designs will sound exactly the same, so there still is some decision making involved there for discriminating ears I would say.
The Paradisea has a tube output stage and the resulting sound will vary greatly depending on specific tube used, I have found.
No doubt there are many implementation details with DACs that matter, but frankly, most newer DACs I hear these days tend to sound quite good overall. That was not so much the case I think just 5-10 years ago. SO maybe DAC designs have matured quite well of late and excellent performance not hard to find? Kind of like how most modern computers are well suited to leverage the internet? OR most digital cameras can take very high quality photos that would have cost a lot more to produce in teh past with older technologies?
DACs are pervasive and are used everywhere similarly these days, so that would not surprise me at all if good sounding DACs are commodity items now these days for the most part.
Not to say that any two designs will sound exactly the same, so there still is some decision making involved there for discriminating ears I would say.