The Absolute

t's funny.
The second time I read the Schitt Audio Yggdrasil DAC (the first was on Computer Audiophile) named as one of the top 3 DACs, I start to consider it, and yet typically I eschew any look at Schitt due to their mind-nummingly poor audio specifications, in terms of measured performance.
VS
http://www.msbtechnology.co...
Channel Separation @1Khz: >160db
Dynamic Range @ 48 Khz: 153 dbA
That's > 25 bits (~26) of dynamic range on a MSB ADC. Their Select DAC I believe has great specification. Some other ADCs are great. I know mics have self-noise, etc, mic and instrument cables pick up electrical junk (as do "audiophile" components like DACs) and rooms are noisy ... but it's a bit odd to eschew the hope of 24-bit performance in a DAC.
Somewhere between 20 bits (~120 dB SNR) and 24 (~144 dB SNR) is where well engineered audio gear (like a Bryston cubed amp) performs today, or a top Mark Levinson pre-amp of days ago, but with DACs attempting to replay 32-bit audio (admittedly at a < 24 bit level, maybe ~16 bit, typically) I'd rather see some attempt by audio engineers and the audio press to "shoot for the moon."
I guess someone (maybe it is me) has to compare DACs like the Berkley Alpha Dac Reference 2 (a reviewers favourite), DCS Vivaldi Stack (ditto, the show exhibitors favourite) with DACs like the MSB Select (great specs), Lampzators (enthusiasts favoruite for musicality and purchases) et al.
I feel no need to knock the YGGY DAC. I've done it enough, elsewhere. I felt that such great engineers could do better.
But, after watching the latest Apple Developers Conference today, I find I am "out of my bit-depth" in terms of technology when machine learning technology is now being supported by Metal 2 (great name) and 28 cores of Intel Xenon - that's a gas, right? - are being offered in a desktop.
Maybe someone with that Mac Pro - and all those cores of technology - could engineer a decent spec'ing DAC - by modeling the hardware.
I know I for one get pissed when a company I love like iFi brings out a DAC in a different colour (Micro iDSD BL) - says it it much better - and yet exactly the same specs as the original. What a wash.
I get pissed off at Cartier too for bringing out so many sunglasses in slight colour changes - as each one sets me back between a thousand and twenty five hundred.
People - collectors or just regular folk - who buy things like MSBs latest integrated DAC, in a gold-finish - I totally understand.
You'd keep such a thing for maybe 2 years or maybe (20), like Bryston, forever.
The argument I read about buying a cheap product of the same marque (little Schitt) and another similar priced one, two years later, I totally understand.
I did the same thing myself, while studying Philosophy. Read the little books by a major author first, before the gigantic, or muli-volume (rare) tomes.
Always got pissed when there would be a line of ancient Greek right at the beginning of something, but perhaps soon, with Google, we'll have ancient Language options in the translator (easy to do), rather than modern, so I'd have to stop my reading.
People here get that way (often in the forums) when they see a car-level price for a cable, footer (used car), or MSB DAC, say.