There is another major manufacturer, with one of the largest and most capable graduate-level engineering internal staffs in the high end audio world to put very high, if not on top of the list. This 41-year-old, nuclear physicist-run German company is Theory plus Application. They are more casually known as T plus A (T+A). While T+A manufacturers a full line of audio equipment and offers DAC's at several different price levels, they have had a high end version called the MV 3100 HV for a while now. It uses a unique in-house developed, 4-DAC sigma-delta system for PCM up to 32 bit/384, and a separate true 1-bit native processor handling DSD only, up to DSD 512 (8X). Dual power cables, supplies and internal processing chambers completely separate digital from analog processing and a high precision in-house developed SACD transport are included.
T+A just now released a new flagship DAC, the SD 3100 HV and a combination DAC/Preamp called the SDV 3100 HV. Both of these surpass previous designs and set new standards converting PCM at up to 32/764 and native DSD up to 1024. Both the SD and SDV offer an unsurpassed value proposition, priced in the USA at $35k and $37.5k respectively. Both are available now from Lone Star Audio in Lakeway, Texas.