Am I there yet? DAC chip pecking order..

[buckstir]

O.K. in a nutshell...Yamaha CR-820 or Sansui AU-D9 with stacked HPM-100's...Teac CD-P650 with USB in for my ipod classic...Teac has a Burr-Brown 1791ADBR Dac chip and sounds really fine...soon will put a Yaqin CD2 Tube Buffer between CD and power for a little bit of mellow....so, how does the Burr-Brown chip fall in line with the current budget outboard DACs

Emotiva...AD1955
Maverick D2...AD1955 with upgradable opamps
Schiit Bifrost...AKM4399
Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100...Wolfson WM8742
Pure I-20...Cirrus 4353

Are any of these chips an improvement over the Burr-Brown...is there a new level of clarity I can get to ?...I need to know if the chip is a viable way to compare these DACs when doing my research...will only spend $ for a clear improvement in SQ...maybe I'm there already...maybe I am tortured by the next upgrade disease...just plain don't know the "pecking order" of these chips.

 

[pete_mac]

The chip is only part of the equation. I've heard the same chip sound warm and mellow vs bright and detailed due to the quality of the design of the surrounding circuitry, the power supply, and the digital and analogue stages. Implementation is king when it comes to DACs.

Out of those DACs, I've only heard the Emotiva (XDA-1 and XDA-2), Maverick and Dac Magic. My choice from a sound quality perspective would be the Bifrost. I haven't heard your TEAC unit so I can't offer any impressions on how it sounds vs the other DACs listed above.