NOS DAC's without any digital filtering?

You generally won't be able to tell how much modern DAC sucks until you got a really high end accurate system. That means super high damping (making integrating the amp into the speaker mandatory), plus you'll need balanced power (to reduce noise by 10-20db, a miracle btw), you'll also need low jitter input, but that still leaves a huge weak spot the analog XLR cable, so you'll need a very good one there too.

So if your current DAC sounds fine, don't upgrade your gears :)

Sure, and you generally won't be able to tell how much modern homes suck until you move into the Palace at Versailles. That means sleeping in Napoleon's bedroom, sitting in with the Assemblee National for French constitutional reviews, and getting dressed in the Hall of Mirrors. Of course the weak spot may be your wardrobe, so you'll need to drop $400K on some custom-tailored suits at Cifonelli in Paris. So if your current home works just fine, don't start phoning realtors in France.

Or, said a different way, modern DACs don't suck for 99.999999999% of the lifeforms on this planet, not necessarily including llamas and pigmy marmosets.

Like Bombaywalla, I'm just glad to be part of the team.

Zd542, your post resonates with something that I've been thinking about as well, about people being unhappy back then and all of a sudden unhappy now. It's always been my personal experience that the biggest differences in sound, and shaping a system, happen at the speakers, and that differences between DACs are more subtle. That's just my experience, YMMV. But I've read the threads on Head-fi, and people talk about Delta-Sigma dacs as if having to suffer through them is like dropping your pants, covering your backside with honey, and sitting naked on an ant hill. It goes beyond personal preferences, it's a borderline lynching campaign against almost everything Delta-Sigma. It's been years since I listened to a Theta Dac, and I've not listened to an Yggdrasil, or Red Wine Audio Bellina (just for example), so it's possible I'm missing the boat on new-retro Dac technology, but I just don't hear the misery and torture that so many describe when I myself listen to D-S dacs. So on the one hand, I'm curious about the Yggdrasil, but on the other the levels of hyperbole and vitriol against D-S leave me with an uneasy skepticism. Sorta like when a movie studio blatantly over-promotes a comedy film - you can't help but wonder if you should save the $10 and stay home (which isn't to say that I think Schiit is over-promoting - I think all of the over-promoting is coming from unaffiliated parties).