The real sound is made outside the chip by power supplies, filters, clocks, and analog stages. I think all too much attention is paid to the D to A conversion.
As a vinyl veteran I like to think of the digital to analog converter (be it DS chip, multibit chip or R2R circuit) as the turntable, arm and cartridge. The analog stage is analogous to the phono pre.
Analog output stages generally include:
1) I-V conversion (current to voltage)
2) Low-pass filters
3) Gain stage
4) Output buffers
Even in some very expensive DACs too little effort is provided to the power supplies and analog stages IMO. Cheap switching supplies and cheap chip op amps are used even in some high cost DACs. Vinyl addicts would think twice about allowing that to happen in a costly phono pre. I think it is what keeps some lp addicts from enjoying music from a DAC.
As a vinyl veteran I like to think of the digital to analog converter (be it DS chip, multibit chip or R2R circuit) as the turntable, arm and cartridge. The analog stage is analogous to the phono pre.
Analog output stages generally include:
1) I-V conversion (current to voltage)
2) Low-pass filters
3) Gain stage
4) Output buffers
Even in some very expensive DACs too little effort is provided to the power supplies and analog stages IMO. Cheap switching supplies and cheap chip op amps are used even in some high cost DACs. Vinyl addicts would think twice about allowing that to happen in a costly phono pre. I think it is what keeps some lp addicts from enjoying music from a DAC.