I am responding to the recent article on DACs and the quick brush-off of ladder DACs.
(Richard Murison’s “My Kingdom for a DAC”, Richard didn’t brush off ladder DACs so much as say that they were damned hard to build properly –Ed.)
There are several R2R or ladder DACs on the market and in my opinion and that of many others they are far superior to any delta-sigma DAC on the market. The best example is the Audio-GD Master 7 dac. Also, the great Audio Note DACs are ladder DACs. These DACs have a musicallity that delta-sigma DACs dream about. Delta-sigma dacs are used mostly because R2R chips are simply too difficult and expensive to make.The old R2R chips are expensive, hard to find and no longer in production.
I believe Mytek is making an R2R chip and Audio Note has one in development. Did a recent comparison of my Master 7 with a friend’s DCS stack and even he thought the Master 7 was better. The DCS is 10 times the price. Yes, a ladder DAC will not do DSD, but for me that is no great loss.
Alan Hendler
Doesn’t Like Tchaikovsky Either
Three cheers for Mr. Schenbeck. He writes concisely and entertainingly and, with his adroit embedding of musical examples, uses the electronic magazine format as it should be used. I look forward to each of his contributions.
Never much liked Tchaikovsky either.
Scott P
Lancaster, PA
What Happened To Scott?
Thank you for continuing to publish Copper. I just have one request – we need more music suggestions from Scott! In Issue #1, Scott introduced me to Kings of Convenience and I have been enjoying listening to their albums ever since. We need more music suggestions Scott. Please come back!
Jeff Maloney
Madison, WI
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