I just had to buy another HP amplifier/DAC. The darling of the moment are R2R ladder DAC’s, in essence old DAC technology. If you don’t make one of those as a manufacturer you’re ‘not in’. At least in the more affordable arena where you can buy the things at a hundred dollar nowadays.
I did not jump on the bandwagon. Having had both the K11 and K11 R2R DAC at home at the same time, I did not like the more fuzzy, ‘warmer/softer’ output of the latter even in OS mode. I bought the bog standard version and am very happy with it. I do not want my DAC to impose its own personality, I want it as neutral as possible.
I just had to order another one as mine was confiscated by Miss Winniethefoo for her own use but was advised elsewhere that the K13 R2R ‘is far more superior in every way’. Needless to say I did not bother.
I do however understand that some want a bit of ‘flavour’ with their music. Neither my headphone or main system do not need that, yours may do. (Chord DAC in main system).
What is your opinion as a user, prospective purchaser of an R2R or opponent?
Yet to find any hifi component or accessory which doesn’t colour or flavour the sound. You either like what they do or you don’t.
I read a great deal about R2R DACs before making my own purchase over 5 years ago. My heart told me this was what I needed/wanted.
I had the opportunity to audition 3 but only because friends owned them. One was too warm for me. One, with all due respect to its owner, was actually far too clinical. Phenomenally detailed but, erm, so what. The other was absolutely wonderful. However, it was also, regrettably, too big to go on my Hutter Racktime shelving and I was looking to downsize rather than have less but bigger boxes.
The takeaway for me was that all DACs are different to greater or lesser extents and it should be your ears and eyes which judge not the technical wording.
I like my music natural sounding and.try to reproduce what was recorded without modifying it, e.g. to make more “exciting” as some like. (Though with poor recordings of good music I sometime wish I could tweak a bit!).
Have no interest in fashions or fads, and have no opinion on DAC architecture: What matters being how any given DAC sounds. I found Chord’s Hugo to be remarkably natural sounding, unlike any DACs I had heard before, and Chor’s Dave DAC took that to a whole new level with incredible detail and 3-dimensional imagery. The Chords use FPGA, I’ve no idea what the architecture was of others I’ve heard.