Digital Drive

Posted by morricab (D) on February 18, 2024 at 13:20:21

In Reply to: RE: Not all but many are discrete - RE: R2R is not just discrete! posted by AbeCollins on February 16, 2024 at 13:37:58

i have no doubt about the output stage and power supply making a big contribution to the overall sound. However, I think you underplay the significance of the DAC and its architecture.

A friend of mine has the Ayon Stratos DAC, which is virtually identical to my Skylla (same PSU same output stage) except the digital engine where they have gone to an ESS (not sure which model) chip due to lack of availability on the PCM1704. They sound quite similar BUT there is a robustness and realness with the PCM1704 based DAC that puts it ahead of the same DAC with different digital engine.

Counterpoint had a DAC in the 1990s that you could swap between an UltraAnalog D20400A, Analog Devices AD1862N or a CS soemthing or other D/S chip. The rest was essentially the same (at least the analog stage and PSU...obviously some of the digital processing was different). The CS chip based version was universally loathed and there was a bit of a toss up between the two R2R chips...the UA was smoother and more refined and the AD1862 had big ball dynamics and bass punch. Same PSU and same Analog stage...very different sounds.