Comparison of latest DAC chips

And consistent with @erik_squires I tried one of those top measuring dacs (matrix x-sabre pro) and it was in my bottom tier.

I'd pay more attention to common reviewer impressions of a particular piece than the underlying chipset.

If I were deciding (and I did recently do a dac shootout, see my systems page), I'd just decide what particular characteristics I'm trying to get in my system (e.g., accuracy, clarity, tonality, holographic soundstage, dynamics, neutrality, warmth, speed, etc) and then read as many reviews/impressions as possible and see what dacs tend to elicit your keywords from listeners. 

Outside of home demos, I find that the most effective decision method.

Even in George's list of R2R dacs which he claims are superior (I also have an R2R Audio Mirror T3-SE), it really is the implementation that matters.  The dacs on that list are going to sound very different from one another.  I'd contend that many would be judged as sounding just as different from one another as they would vs a dac based on a different chip/methodology.

Finally, although I do believe in measurements, it's definitely not everything.  I demoed the top measuring dac in the world for a month (as tested by audiosciencereview) and it did not impress.  It was the worst sounding dac among the bunch (Audio Mirror, Matrix, iFi, & Lampizator). 

It's an aural hobby, be guided by numbers, but the ears are the final judge.

@mtdining It's hard to take stuff posted by people who take extreme black and white positions seriously.  

Congrats Dale.  Let us know how it goes.  With a 30 day trial period from Apos, you can't lose.