Any thoughts on the upcoming Schiit Audio Gungnir dac? Is their "adapaticlock" circuit really that unique or just good marketing? The rest of the dac (upgradable dac and usb) and fully discrete balanced output looks pretty good.

Interesting. No idea about the circuit, but I like that it's modular/upgradable. And this isn't even the "statement" DAC. Glad they also stayed away from the Sabre chipses. I don't like those.

I'm curious, what is it you don't like about the Sabre chips?

In every execution I have heard so far (at least 5, I think, but I'm struggling to remember exactly which), they've sounded lean to me. I'm not sure if that's the nature of the chip itself or the way it's being used.

What about the output stages? Same-ish?

oof, not sure, I need to check.

The three that come to mind immediately are Peachtree, Audioquest DragonFly, and the HeadRoom Ultra DAC. But I am forgetting the two others (at least I'm almost positive I have heard 2 others... ).

That's interesting, I found the DACmini which uses an AKM chip (I forget which) a bit on the lean side, but I've had no such feelings from the Audiolab M-DAC which uses the 9018. I don't have a whole lot of experience with higher end sources though, next to the Neko D100 MKII the M-DAC is the highest end DAC I've heard in recent years.

Could just be an implementation thing, then. Perhaps due to the relative newness of the Sabre chips?

I remember being a bit wary of the Sabre chip initially because I had heard some complaints of DAC's using them being bright and on the cooler side. I took a leap of faith with the M-DAC based on a recommendation from a friend who heard a prototype and from reading a lot of the background info posted by the designer, John Westlake, over at Pink Fish Media forums. John has indicated on numerous occasions that the Sabre chips can be a real bitch to work with and implement properly.

Schiit Gungnir really rolls off the tongue.