Which one of these DAC chips performs better?

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories DACs
1

I know that the chip does not matter that much in building the DAC…but I wanna know which one of the following DAC chips performs the best:

ES9018K2M
PCM1794
AK4493

2

You already answered your own question, it will all depend on the implementation and there’s no way to predict how something will preform without knowing the entire rest of the design, at least from a sound quality perspective imo

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3

But how do the chips compare ? I am not saying how they compare in a DAC…I mean the chips only…

4

I mean that’s something you can look at a spec sheet for, and get whatever info you are looking for there. But imo that means absolutely nothing if the end result sounds bad, which again cannot be predicted by the chip alone

Random google search of spec sheets:

https://ismosys.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ES9018K2M-Datasheet-v3.4.pdf

5

how many dB is THD+N: 0.0004% ?

6

Uhhh I think -108? If my math is correct (-107.9588 exactly)

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7

Yes.

LOL. Design the rest of the circuit, read the specs and, decide which chip works best with your circuit.

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8

So you can’t make a general statement.
It depends on the choice of capacitors and transistors.
Selection and construction of the power supply unit.

Basically, I only go to the chip to find out in which direction it goes.
Akm tends to be warm and more lively, Ess colder and more neutral.

But it also works differently the RME Adi 2 fs is something completely different in this sense, even though it has an Akm chip.
And it also shows that the other components also play a role.

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