@martinman
Hi,
So if you have no budget problems and want a R2R DAC you would definitely find yourself very well with AQUA - LA SCALA Mk III Optologic Dac, decidedly excellent and analog sound. Certainly not cheap but built with great accuracy and with top components.
Instead if you have budget problems a great solution could be a DIY construction using IAN CANADA cards. It is true that ES 9038 chips are still used but if you add a reclock card and a transformer audio output card (entirely passive) and also use a supercapacitor power supply then you will see that things change a lot. I myself after having various DACs also based on AKM or Philips or ESS chips I had never managed to obtain a sound that satisfied me (in reality I am a lover of vinyl that I reproduce through an SME turntable), so I tried the Ian Canada route. Now I am acceptably satisfied, good sound, transparent and sufficiently analog. With DSD 128 files really great!
Regards
Alessandro