Pat, I'd have to slightly disagree with you. I follow the Pro sound forums because I've found that innovations by the manufactures that cater to the pro sound community often are the leading edge of circuit design. I'd agree that in the studio mics and preamps are often used as 'flavors' to give a particular sound to a mix, but after that care is taken to keep the rest of the chain as neutral as possible. The pro DACs that we ponder here are used primarily in studios and mastering houses as the last link in the chain and are sought by the pros for their neutrality, hence the crossover appeal to us. Audiophile DACs, on the other hand, come generally in two flavors. One school of thought is simpatico with the pro DACs in that they strive for neutrality and the 'holy grail' of straight wire with gain and hence find their way into pro sound use. The other school massages the signal to give their DACs a distinctive 'flavor' to distinguish themseleves from their competition. In all cases I've found that its the analog circuitry that comes immediatly after the DAC chip that contributes most to the final character of the sound. I come down on the 'less is more' school in that debate. Both Vinnie and Wayne(I think) remove the opamp from the path and impliment a simpler LPF. Pro DACs, OTOH, need a more robust output given their particular demands. I think you'd agree that both the Lavry and Benchmark have implimented very clean final output circuitry. Apologies for wandering off topic.
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