Yes agree, the early Phillips DAC chip underwent the most development (from memory) but was changed after only two editions of players to appease the pimp shirt salesmen who could then brag about having a 16 bit DAC as opposed to the old 14Bit! Ever since then when the machines were built to a standard they were built to a price (low) and the component count went down and the baby was thrown out with the bathwater. If you have ever had one of the earlier 14 bit players you'd know that they were much more complete machines with multiple boards and power supplies, then bitstream came along, 18 bit, 20bit and now 24 bit..........hmmmmm, all those numbers to crunch compressed to hell and back 16 bit CD's. A well recorded non compressed CD on one of those early Phillips or Marantz players would wipe the smile from plenty of high priced machines with humbling price tags. (All IMO_SNA) The early machines had pretty awful filters and op amps which failed to allow the players to shine. The DAC in question uses 4 of the early DAC chips emulating the CD7 x 2 with a descrete output stage and other tweaky bits and I think offers good value. Some one please buy one so we can see how good it is!
Tuyen where are you when we need your wallet (ha ha).
