Many of you will have seen the claims made for the ESS SabreDAC:
depending on its configuration, 132dB of DR in stereo mode (limited by
the external components and measurement equipment) and extemely low
THD of about 0.0001% (-120dB). I was very skeptical that this could
be achieved.
JA at Stereophile got its hands on one of these in a Weiss DAC202 M1,
and its measurements are pretty remarkable. Noise is extremely low,
and linearity errors with 24-bit data almost disappeared into the
noise. Jitter was far too low to measure. JA concluded "The Weiss
DAC202 is the best-measuring D/A processor I have measured in my
quarter-century career at Stereophile. It just doesn't get any better
than this!"
You might observe that all this is so many orders of magnitude
superior to anyone's hearing that it really doesn't matter, but AFAICS
we have what is essentially a perfect D/A converter. It's certainly
an impressive piece of engineering. And, let me not forget, it's not
just about the SabreDAC: full marks to Weiss too.
Andrew.
http://www.stereophile.com/content/w...r-measurements