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RE: ESS vs AKM vs R2R - Does it really matter ?

My friend and I compared our two Ayon DACs, me with Skylla 2 and him with the Stratos. Mine has BB PCM1704K DAC chips and his has the ESS Sabre chips (not sure which version). Digital filtration is of course different as would be necessitated from the different DAC architecture.

However, the power supply and output stage of the two DACs is IDENTICAL. Same tube rectification, same output tubes in same design even same output stage coupling caps.

The result? More similar than different. The caveat was that if the Stratos had the upsampling engaged it sounded very different. Much leaner and airy but lacking the tone and substance that makes the Skylla 2 great.

Turning off the upsampling on the Stratos led to a convergence of the sound to the point that, upon first listen, it would be difficult to tell them apart. After a bit longer though that R2R vs. Sigma/Delta difference creeps in. Mainly it has to do with solidness of sound and the feeling of real live instruments vs. ethereal cutouts.

The take away is that the power supply and output stage have a huge effect on the overall sound but that even still the digital section left it's fingerprint on the sound.

I have been toying with changing to an Ayon CD-35II that has been highly lauded in European audio mags. My problem is that it is using the latest AKM chips and I am quite fond of the sound I get from my R2R chips. I am concerned that I will eventually hear that S/D sound and then dislike my digital...because I find that sound very unnatural.

I had a similar issue when I once had an Audio Aero Prima DAC, which was basically their Capitole 24/193 cd player without the transport. Initially listening was very postive, airy, transparent, reasonably dynamic and spacious. Later it sounded too smooth and low level dynamics suffered. It was airy but not realistic in upper energy instruments (cymbals for example). So, I sold it and went back to my R2R DACs with relief.

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