High resolution digital is dead. The best DAC's killed it.

@fredlobo"Recently I upgraded my bridge to a SOtM sMS-200 Neo and was blown away.  My little Teac NT-503 never sounded better.  When I added the external word clock and Ben's Illuminati DC power it was unbelievable.  The CDs were alive! "

can you put that in the king's english dear lad? what is the bridge? do you have links? i am interested in the new TEAC NT 505 and the NAD C 658... the NAD makes more sense but the TEAC looks to be a bit higher engineered

Would DAB radio output be improved by a DAC?

The Sigma Delta architecture has to my ears a sound that gives digital a bad reputation. 

Just bad implementations.  If you do the digital filtering right, it can easily beat all the old chips, including 1541/1702/1704.  I designed DACs with the 1704 as well.  Musical, but not live like my Sigma Delta DAC.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I also use a SOtM USB regenerator, but with my own power supply.  Makes ALL the difference with USB:

https://sotm-usa.com/collections/sotm-ultra/products/copy-of-tx-usbultra-regenerator-1 

Inserts in-line with the USB cable.  Simple.  Need 2 cables, each 1-2m long.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I designed DACs with the 1704 as well. Musical, but not live like my Sigma Delta DAC.

Sorry don’t know about yours, but totally the opposite for me, no Delta Sigma I’ve heard can match it with those three R2R Multibit dac chips you mentioned or others when implemented well, for "prat", "boggie factor" and "dynamic slam" when converting PCM redbook.

If anything the good Delta Sigma’s are too sweet and limp, not exciting, without any "live" feel to them when doing PCM Redbook, but they can do DSD SACD if your into that stuff.

Cheers George