I have never worked, or will, for TI. Matter of fact, I hate them. I make obscene gestures at their plant quite often. I know someone out in AZ who hates them as much as I do. One day, he told his new bosses that when he worked for H-P, that we went out of his way to design out TI parts.
As for Burr-Brown, they are second to AD. But as you may have read, they are now the only choice in current-out DACs. And they are not longer a true R-2R architecture. Another story for another thread. Never worked for either of them. Do not intend to. Of course, B-B is now TI, so no way in hell...........
One bit is now called delta-sigma. Actually, it always was, just that some marketing weenies thought that it sounded better. It is much easier process to make, and in pratice needs no tweaking to get the MSB trim right. The big boys love 'em, as they could build a player that needed no adjustments before it was shipped. And would sound just as good (or as bad) for as long as it lasted. But has for how it sounds........another thread is needed.
(Reminds me of a story about Sony 707ES players.......the ones with 4 MSB adjustments per channel. We need another thread just for that alone.)
I have used 1704s when I needed to replace AD1862s. I do not like the low-level linearity. Mind you, that will result in other problems, and not "as bright as screaming witch". Uses tons of current on the negative rail, as they use several ladders, fired in a carefully selected stagger, to prevent nasty current glitches on the supply.
The later series..........1738..........still have my samples on my desk.........'179x........in reality, they have a mix of '1704-style ladder DACs and some delta-sigma stuff somehow combined to give a current output. More of a DSP chip than a DAC in the sense that we think of one. Obviously, an attempt to make a less expensive chip, but retain current out capabilities so that die-hards like me will use them. They know that we are not in the market for delta-sigma.
