Which good discrete R2R multibit DAC & why NOS ?

rost OP

Which good discrete R2R multibit DAC

Can't remember where I found it, but here a list of today's manufacturers making R2R Multibit dacs, and this is getting old I think.

If you have more to add please post them up and the price, and the numbers are slowly growing.

 

Up to $3k:

Border Patrol, Monarchy, Denafrips, Audio-gd, MHDT, Holo, Soeskris, Metrum, Schiit

$5-$15K:

Audio Note, MSB, Metrum, Computer Audio Design, Aqua, LessLoss, Totaldac, Lampizator

$15K+:

CH Precision, Aries Cerat, Light Harmonic, Audio Note, MSB, Totaldac, Lampizator

**Special mention to MSB, Monarchy and Audio Note, who never gave up on R2R. Even after the short lived takeover of delta-sigma, for doing PCM Redbook conversion.

 

Cheers George

@rost,

You are probably one of the very few luckiest owner of this amazing player. IMHO, with CDP-777 there is no need to search for a R2R external DAC, your player is already outfitted with a SOTA converter.

You will pay through the nose to hear uptick in performance, if any for CD playback. Just to clarify further, the thread concerning upsampling and upconversion in servers, R2R NOS DAC’s mentioned by @georgehifi was said in context with digital streaming. Unless you have plans to dive into digital streaming, buying an external DAC with CDP-777 makes no sense.

Thanks George for that informative list.

Thank you also Lalitk 
Your views echo my concerns as to how much of an improvement, if any, an external DAC plus the added cable expense would make.
As of yet, no immediate plans to get into streaming, too many lps & cds.

Just further on the K2 of the Reimyo, I had many moons ago the flagship JVC K2 player, it used the Bur Brown R2R PCM56P dac chips in it.

Also today the Zanden Model 5000 MkIV is a K2 player also, it uses the R2R Philips TDA1541 double crowns in it.
But I can’t find what the Reimyo uses for dac chips, my guess would be the R2R PCM1704K’s, I don’t think it’s discrete R2R

The Zanden didn’t get much love from JA on the Stereophile test bench. For one I can’t believe how much it was rolled off in the bass
https://www.stereophile.com/content/zanden-5000-mkivsignature-da-converter-2000-premium-cd-transport-measurements

Cheers George

US-based Mojo Audio makes R2R NOS dacs.  Their Mystique V3 has won a few awards.  It uses the 20-bit, AD1862 R2R chips.  They have dacs from $2500-7500.

I thought I had read somewhere that the Reimyo DAP 777 used PCM63's, but now can't find anything on it.   I sometimes look for old dacs that have that chip, and I remember the Reimyo being on my mental list.