I’ve DIY/modded/bought Chi-Fi DACs using Wolfson, AKM, Sabre, Burr Brown, Cirrus, and
Philips (TDA1543) chips.
I know I specifically don’t like Sabre implementations. They tend to reveal all flaws, and impart a “lean” signature. Hate "sterile " sound for music enjoyment. So adding a warm amp is the path to sinergy with ESS.
I used (and do still) a brute force approach to NOS design with a DDDAC 1543 mkII, which has been my favourite from a long time for headphone listening, until I tested Wolfson (GrubDac/WM8524, Dugood WDAC-1/WM8746) but specially AKM: (Behringer SRC2496/AKM4393, waiting for a single AK4490 /XMOS208 based one to reach me.
I noted also most pro equipment tend to use either AKM Dacs, or more complex/pricier designs using Burr Brown (e.g. Audient id22/PCM1798).
Actually in the quest of locating a killer price gem based on dual AKM4097EQ with balanced outputs.
Why I like AKM?
- Built in digital filtering w/o any middle stages
- Sound: Never gritty, very detailed, smooth sounding (yes, they definitely can be described as velvet sounding!)
- Closest to Pro sound from $$$ pro DACs I’ve heard.
- Killer to listen to varying quality sources, as it enhances them.