I thought something similar when I read that review. I also thought it was odd that the only DAC the reviewer chose for comparison was the Mytek Brooklyn, which is a fraction of the price. It would have been helpful to have comparisons with some more similarly priced DACs with similar functionality, such as the Ayre QX5, the Chord DAVE or even the Mytek Manhattan II.
The surprising thing (perhaps not) was how close the vastly cheaper Mytek Brooklyn came to the DCS. I wonder how the Manhattan II would have compared. Also, the statement that DAC chips are now "very good, approaching the performance of dCS's Ring-DAC technology", which is probably an understated way of saying there is little advantage to proprietary DAC topologies given how advanced modern DACs chips are.
The surprising thing (perhaps not) was how close the vastly cheaper Mytek Brooklyn came to the DCS. I wonder how the Manhattan II would have compared. Also, the statement that DAC chips are now "very good, approaching the performance of dCS's Ring-DAC technology", which is probably an understated way of saying there is little advantage to proprietary DAC topologies given how advanced modern DACs chips are.