Dac Technology Mature?

I agree with Eric.  I have an AD1955 in my Emotiva pre-amp and I noticed no real difference on hi-res files, but mp3's and Redbook CD's are much better sounding.

melbguyone - where are you coming from? You are so wrong about ps audio. How many dacs do you know of use FPGA? How many dacs do you know can add MQA thru software and at no cost? Their DS dac has the bridge which is outstanding technology where very few dacs support. You can have the old technology of using USB and having a music server or computer in your audio room. Most new releases of their software improve the SQ not decrease it, but what’s nice, you are in control, use the latest version or not. How about buying a $1500 board for your dac for MQA or another type, and you don’t like it? Can you send it back?

Very Interesting.  So I guess my DAC with a 30lb power supply would be considered???  Upgrade for future???  PCB layout???  Hmmm what about point-to-point wiring, copper chassis, discrete R2R, Caddock resistors, V-Caps, DHT design?  

Picking up on Shadorne’s comment, remember it’s all about implementation. And that comes down to the skill of the designer and the company’s manufacturing capacity. As I said, the digital part (incl: the dac chips) in total would contribute no more than about 15% or so to the complete sound. The psu and analog stage, combined with pcb layout matters more.

I used a DAC made in the 1990's retail $1000. Bought it for $250 and used it for YEARS. My used DAC was jut as good as the latest 2010 raved in TAS and Stereophile. So I returned that $2300. DAC and kept using my $250 prize.Only when I heard the Marantz SA-10 playing CDs from a changer via Toslink did I switch, The SA-10 costs $7000 and is worth it to me. I use it as a DAC playing all my CDs. The SA-10 uses new DSD works or all decoding.   Works on CD to be better too.
Some ways to improve your old DAC: stuff it with black antistatic foam (in baggies, with grounding the foam to the chassis) or boost the AC frequency into the unit. (Both those tweaks from Stereophile writers years ago) Or use those alternate waveforms from PS Audio regenerators to improve the AC into the DAC.So I would say there are ways to improve the output from a DAC. When Marantz and others bring the sort of DSD processing to a cheaper level of players.. Or someone figures out how to do it even better...

Digital is still in its infancy, IMHO.  It will continue to improve for a long time to come.