burr-brown vs. sabre vs. ?

thanks for the responses. as I mentioned, I'm actually looking for an 'interface' (musicians use them to convert their audio signals into digital for use with 'digital audio workstations' (like protools). in other words, this ain't 'high end'. I can't imagine any mass-market interface will use the R2R chips... the one I'm leaning towards (audient id14) uses burr-brown, and a very popular one (apogee duet) uses sabre. interestingly, some people don't like the way the apogee boosts highs and lows, which fits what Coli wrote.

I have heard that Lynx HILO makes a very good Hifi Dac as well as ADC. If I were you I would splurge for one of these used. I have no idea what brand(s) of chip it uses, but as others have said it's not the brand of chip that is of primary importance.

Lynx is crystal (cirrus logic), same DAC as in many sound cards.

All the DACs with the same chip when properly implemented sounds similar. So first figure out which DAC chip you like the sound of, then find an implementation with the biggest bang for the buck.

Robertsong: most NOS DACs today are based on old R2R chips. Outside of custom R2R NOS dac (Metrum, TotalDAC), Soekris is a recent one but no one has commercialized it yet...

Someone has managed to turn Burr-brown PCM1794a (6 bit R2R + rest in Delta sigma) into NOS mode (DDDAC1794)!!! I wish more people copy that design...

As I understand it you are looking for an analog to digital converter to convert your vinyl analog signals to digital. The devices you mention also have a DAC built it. Are you planning to use the device as both an ADC and a DAC? Many people use separate units for A/D and D/A.

One thing to determine up front, is what format you are striving for. IMO, you should have at least 24/96KHz A/D, although some will say 44 KHz is fine. You may also want DSD. It is all the rage these days, but has the big drawback that you cannot edit the format with low-priced software, except to break it into tracks.

If you are mainly looking for analog to digital converters, I would look at Tascam in the $1,000 and under range. They have handheld options for less than $100 (DR-05) up to the DA-3000 at $1,000. These devices record to a microSD card and you can then transfer the digitized file to a PC via usb. The DR-05 goes up to 24/96KHz and the DA-3000 does 24/192KHz as well as DSD. The CA-3000 uses Burr Brown PCM4202 for A/D and Burr Brown PCM1795 for D/A.

I will concur with others that there is more to A/D design than just what chip is used. That is evident in the details of the design of the DA-3000.

You did not ask about software, but Vinyl Studio is an excellent option for processing the digital file. It allows tracks to be broken out, hum/hiss to be removed, clicks to be removed and it has the added bonus that few software packages have of doing lookups of track names and timing data from online databases, including discogs. It handles DSD files. It also can do software RIAA equalization, which many people prefer to digital equilization. But that depends on your phono pre-amp setup.

Pro Tools is a good packaage, but it is a little overkill for just digitizing vinyl, in my opinion. You do not need all its effects and mixing capabilities. I would give Vinyl Studio a try before going to Pro Tools. Vinyl Studio is $29. Don't let the price fool you. It is a fine tool for digitizing vinyl.