Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

mikelavigne
MSB Select II is on another level to my ears. and i’m not alone with that conclusion. what i do directly compare the Select II to is my vinyl and RTR tape, as well as other recent digital units in my system.

Hi Mike, totally with you.
Many many months ago I tried to point the way here, for what the title of this thread is, for the "best dac for Redbook" (which is pcm) replay, you need to go to properly implemented R2R Multibit based dacs, not Delta Sigma based ones as ESS ect.
But I got but I got castigated for saying this by some, so I gave up. I wish you all the luck in the world, trying to get them to turn around so they see the forest through the trees..

Cheers George

George, why in the world would you make such a statement?  There are many DAC's of all designs that sound outstanding.  I've owned both types and like them.  There are plenty of great designs right now from many manufacturer's.  

My Bricasti delta sigma beat the pants off the total dac’s discrete d/a converter chips.

I agree with CTSooner. And I said the same thing the last time this was brought up. I don’t believe that a certain type of chip is required to make good sound. It’s all in the implementation of that chip. That said, if an R2R is properly implemented it will typically make great sound. But I have heard good non R2R beat meh R2R dacs. It’s how you use it, not just what parts are installed. 

In the case of Grateful Dead, the actual source music is distributed as flac files because this is "lossless" compression technology. Whereas so much other music distributed is mp3, mqa or some other compression/lossy schema.

In the case of DACs, it’s my understanding that delta-sigma is "lossy" (i.e. all of the source PCM music just isn’t converted and played back) whereas an RxR DAC is "lossless", so all of the music is played. And if that is true, it becomes hard to imagine how delta-sigma could possibly ever sound better, regardless of how it is used or any other factor for that matter.

So in my mind, if in fact delta-sigma is "lossy" and does not play *all* of the music, it is automatically disqualified as even being a contender for what this thread is mean to address, Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD.

EDIT:

So as silly as it seems, the essence of what I'm stating is that even *if* delta-sigma does sounds better in any particular implementation, who cares, if all of the music isn't being played?