It wasn't long ago that bottom-shelf DACs had this dry, gray, punchy, grainy sound, emerging from a weird mechanical clarity. Their sound reminded me of cheap whisky. The ones that didn't sound like $1 shots replaced the dry grain with some blurry gel. No vitality. No subtle contrasts. No nuance. No air. No atmospherics, no reverberance, and nothing I would call transparency.
Digital's rapidly evolving technology made the next wave of DACs sound strikingly clear and quiet, with some touchy-feely hints of wetness to suggest a more natural transparency. Unfortunately, most of these newfangled wet DACs sounded like distilled water tastes.
For me, digital transparency didn't become truly wet, colorful, or naturalistic until I discovered NOS R-2R converters, which made midlevel four-figure DACs, like my Denafrips and HoloAudio, sound like bits bathed in luminosity. Very relaxed. Grainless. Ektachrome.
