TIER 1: PCM63 The best sounding DAC with the smooth in all frequency response, great depth, large soundstage, very good details and very intimate sound is only achieve with this one and the only PCM63 DAC. The music played from this DAC are full bodied, every stings stung and all musical instruments deliver with emotional and passion. No others DAC can achieve this top tier list except this PCM63.
TIER 2: AD1862, AD1865 They are both have similar sound signature. Lots of details, great soundstage, good depth, very balanced sound quality and nice sounding vocal. The AD1862 slightly better on mid-range than AD1865, but you might hard to spot the difference when both DAC are test using ABX method in listening test. AD1865 is very easy to build and still easy to obtain these day. In contrast, AD1862 is one of the rarest DAC IC after the PCM63, yet very hard to build since it need 4 separate power supply for each IC.
TIER 3: PCM1702, PCM1704, TDA1541 I put those DAC as the third tier because they have their own weaknesses compares to above tiers. Lets say the PCM1702 and PCM1704 shared the same sound signature. Both of them have very wide sound stage, great details and speed. But both of them sound more analytical, more dry and thin especially in the vocal. In contrast, the TDA1541 has very good midrange. Very forward midrange presentation (can be good or bad, depends of the listener preference) with multi dimensional, multi layer depth of vocal sounds. But TDA1541 lacks of details, narrow soundstage and mellow. It is very opposite to the PCM1702 and PCM1704.
TIER 4: PCM56, PCM53 They are both the oldest R2R DAC from the same company. They also have similar sound signature. Both of them are sound good especially on the midrange, but of course not as good as TDA1541. This PCM56 and PCM53 have a good detail but narrow soundstage. Those DAC have many weakness especially on the sound presentation is lack of dynamic and the high frequency are slightly noisy. But they are both much better than any delta sigma DAC I've also mentioned above. For the PCM53 is slightly better than PCM56.
TIER 5: TDA1543 Smooth midrange. That is the only strong points of this DAC. All frequency are dull and collapse. The soundstage very narrow. No detail. I still think that TDA1543 is a delta sigma DAC but in more simple/ less number of the current converter (Dynamic Element Matching) architecture.
Those are my thought about the sound quality from each vintage multibit R2R DAC IC that I've ever built and experienced. Those are the most popular multibit DAC IC that have a good sound quality reputation among the audiophiles.
THE ORRONOCO AUDIO DIY: Vintage Multibit R2R DAC Tier List
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