Mingles, I did replace the Bel Canto with the W4S Dac. It's no contest between the two. I really didn't expect as much of a difference as I found. Without going into a lot of hoopla, let's just say that the W4S bettered the Dac 3 in every category. The W4S will take 500 hrs of break in to really smooth out and settle down from the break in irregularities.
Although the implementation is more important(analog section, PS, etc...), the 32 bit sabre chip is capable of higher sampling frequency, bit rate, and dynamic range.
It's a mystery to me how designers pick one particular chip over another. The sound of a DAC has as much to do with the design of the analog output stage as it does with the chip that gets used.
That said, I'd like to hear the W4S, but I'm happy as a clam with my Bel Canto DAC3.
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