Thinking about getting a R2R DAC

i have the following outboard dacs in house

sonnet morpheus
metrum jade
metrum amethyst
van alstine fet hybrid
dena pontus
schiit gumby
neko d100-2
audio mirror troubadour se
ayre codex
chord mojo, qutest tt2 with m scaler
mhdt orchid, paradisea and stockholm2
jolida black ice tube
auris d1d

sold the border patrol se-i, schitt yggy and bifrost mb, dena ares2 and term, rme adi2, w4s dac2v2, topping d90, chord 2qute, psa ds, mytek liberty, benchmark dac2

r2r is important to SQ but DS chips can sound very fine if other aspects of the dac are well designed and tuned to sound good

i am not a dealer, not ’in the biz’, not affiliated with any of the above - just want to hear for myself what works well for me in my system my home, lucky to have the means to pursue this

commercial reviews and hearsay comments from keyboard jockeys may be a useful rough screening tool, but if you really wanna know, you gotta pony up and do the work

@cat_doorman,

My vinyl setup is a Rega P3 with all the upgrades (neo psu, white belt, groove tracer everything) and an apheta 2 cart.  Phono stage is an Avid Pellar

Choosing a dac is like choosing any other audio component. There are compromises to be made. Proponents of R2R dac's, so it goes, are attracted to the notion of simpler signal paths. With no filtering, noise shaping, error correction, upsampling or oversampling it theoretically leads to less "mucking up" of the sound. Proponents of Delta Sigma dac's say that that all the processing is necessary to pass along the most accurate data that can be transformed into the most accurate analog waveform. Both camps have valid arguments. I will say that in my experience, measurements are not the end all. The proof is in the listening.

I was looking for a dac for my streaming and file playback sources (Laufer Teknik Memory Player and Mojo Audio Mac Mini). So I tried several dac's and kept an open mind:

1. Yamamoto YDA-01, Delta sigma. Very nice, balanced sound if all you need is a coax connection. Unfortunately, it has no USB input. I used a SPDIF/USB adapter with this dac and with this implementation it did not sound as good as the next dac that I tried:

2. Border Patrol DAC SE, R2R. A bigger, wider soundstage with what seemed like naturally filled in images that created an intense "you are there" feeling. Analog sounding, but not as good as my LP playback system. The BP was a little smeared, especially in the low end, compared to the Yamamoto, but the midrange had more "pop" in my system.

3. Benchmark DAC3L, Delta sigma. A front row presentation that amazingly was easy to listen to despite its in you face character. Perfectly sized images, great soundstage. However, to my ears it was ultimately sterile sounding, with the sense that the performers were each in their own sound booth at a recording studio, instead of performing together on a stage. I can see how this dac would appeal to those who want to hear every bit of detail in their recordings. 

4. PS Audio DirectStream, FGPA. Very smooth sounding. Too smooth. Images were noticeably smaller than any of the other dac's that I listened to. Bass is similar sounding to the Border Patrol dac, but weaker than that of the Benchmark. Not what I wanted.

5. Mojo Audio Mystique v.3, R2R. The one I kept. Huge, seamless soundstage, images perfectly placed and perfectly blended together. Most realistic sounding among the dac's that I tried. I listen to digital sources with the Mystique more than I listen to records now, but my LP playback system is still a little better. Just a little. The sound I am going for is "performers on a stage" versus "performers in sound booths" which is why I chose this over the Benchmark, which came in second place in my view. 

Compared to the others, the Mojo has the best parts and the most beefy power supply. The signal paths are short, although short signal paths can be seen in some of the other dac's that I tried. Anyways, I bet it is these attributes that is more important for good sound, not whether the chip used is R2R or Delta Sigma.

Thanks everyone for your responses!  I'll look into the Audio Note idea and the Audio Mirror Toubador III.  I'm still considering the MHDT Orchid.  I've heard mixed things about the multibit offerings from Schiit but they offer a great value.  (I had their $120 phono stage for a while and was blown away by how good it sounded for $120!)  I'd love to hear the Border Patrol but the distortion gives me pause.  I know there is good euphonic even order distortion that is pleasing to the ear but I think my preference is more in the middle of the euphonic vs ultra resolving spectrum.  @jjss49 I agree that there's really no substitute for listening.  As an out of work musician I don't have the funds to buy a bunch and compare at home unfortunately.  Can I come over and listen to yours?  JK

@jjss49 That's an amazing array of DAC's man. Wow. Do you have a spreadsheet where you baked them off against one another? I'd love to have the experience of trying such a range. OP, this is why this forum is so helpful, not to mention @thaluza rich descriptive abilities. I wish I had this post when I was trying to pick a DAC. Cornucopia!