What would be important criteria for your purchase of a new DAC?

[semente]

41 minutes ago, Jud said:

Re "none out there:" You folks never heard of Schiit Audio?  I and many others have installed updated boards from them, or had them do so.

 

Can you update the DAC chip in any of their older models?

[Jud]

4 hours ago, semente said:

 

Can you update the DAC chip in any of their older models?

 

Yes.  There are three possible updates for the original Bifrost, for example: analog board; delta-sigma digital board (in addition to other improvements, a new sample rate available); multibit digital board, which changes it to an entirely different DAC.

[mav52]

18 hours ago, pvanosta said:

OK, let's call it updateability. It is precisely because there are none out there that we want to draw attention to the fact that it would be a good feature to build into the next generation. Avoiding obsolescence in a device that today has a shelf life of less than 12 months before some new feature is released that it cannot support, that is what will make me spend my money.

 

You know Ayre provided upgrades to its DAC , actually turned into a DSD capable DAC.  And then there is PS Audio, which is fully upgradable through software releases.  W4S provides an upgrades to its DACS... and Schiit.

[jabbr]

2 hours ago, mav52 said:

 

You know Ayre provided upgrades to its DAC , actually turned into a DSD capable DAC.  And then there is PS Audio, which is fully upgradable through software releases.  W4S provides an upgrades to its DACS... and Schiit.

 

Yes I think that the increased use of FPGAs and SoCs (hybrid ARM/FPGA like the Xilinx Zynq) enable total reconfiguration of the "hardware" in "software". PS Audio is a great example because the underlying FPGA is $<100 so folks are really paying (mostly) for the software.