Chord DACs .. who has moved across to them from R-2R based DACs ?

i have been through the gamut

short summary:

chord dacs (2qute and qutest and hugo tt2) are very rhythmic/dynamic (tremendous PRAT), superbly clear/transparent/’alive’, throw a highly specific and palpable image - they are outstanding in that they accomplish the above without any trace of grain

good r2r dacs, ideally with tube output (mhdt, audio mirror) sacrifice a bit of the crystal clear and dynamic nature for greater warmth and body, especially with voices and acoustic instruments - the imaging gains depth even if the outlines become a touch softened - overall, many feel the presentation is more relaxed/natural, if slightly less obviously detailed and ’hifi’

so it depends on what you want and (more importantly) what your system needs in order to find the right balance

@hilde45 @arafiq

thanks for your nice compliments... i try to be of service where i have the knowledge and experience to share 😇

@chopandchange

i still have multiple dacs i keep (i am off-the-deep-end with equipment, been at this hobby/sickness for decades, enjoy variety, and am a shameless hoarder to boot)

i use a 2qute in a secondary system (does what the qutest does pretty much to my ear, for less $), and i've the hugo tt2/m-scaler as one of my main system dacs (though it is a damn expensive combo...) -- i have also kept a number of r2r dacs, from mhdt, audio mirror and sonnet - which frankly, i listen to more often than the chord combo

you can search my old posts in the digital section, somewhere few months back i posted a list of what dacs i have tried, kept and sold off... looong-ass list 🤣 -- ’tis what happens when covid locks you in the house for a year...

@soix

first, to the comment below, all of schiit’s better sounding dacs are indeed r2r!

second, i agree with your commentary about manifold different flavors of r2r d/a conversion implementation, the variables being os/nos, chip-based/discrete resistor ladder, and of course power supply and output stage (ic, op-amp, tube, transformer coupled, discrete transistors etc) ... all are very important to the overall sound, as is the specific ’voicing’ by the maker -- a great example is the ayre codex... it is lovely sounding dac that is as natural, bloomy, rich/meaty as many nos r2r dacs! yet it is delta sigma, oversampling, non tube -- but implemented brilliantly with charlie hansen’s killer power supply, diff balanced output stage and luscious voicing (rip charlie 🙏)