Hi Astrostar,
The Totaldac conversion philosophy is exactly in this "natural" spirit, no oversampling, no automatic digital filtering... the signal is just directly processed as it comes And I agree with you when it is well done (as here) it is, probably the best way to respect the musical message!
Looks at the d1-seven, the last stunning work of Vincent Brient.
Indeed, I find it odd how so many (more than the NOS camp we are talking about here) continue buying the latest fancy chassis DS DAC at more and more silly money. But aside from the digital system / PCB, the power supply and gain stages are possibly even more important. So many DACs I have tried (and ones I 'flipped up the lid' had weak Opp Amps and poor power supplies, cheap parts even, in a big ticket box. And I am not on about simple designs, more about the implementation. I say, if the manufacturer also makes great pre-amps, then you are probably on the right track, as that experience in the power supply and gain stages of their pre-amps are commonly used in their best DACs. It is not about the digital numbers game, we all got onto that over the last few years and many realised it was BS.
Vincent seems to be making good products, and even the early models still stand up today. I was so so close to buying a TotalDAC 6 2 years back, hovering over the pay button. Alas things happened. Possibly it was because I couldn't get a demo where I lived, or knew anyone with one. So I bought my Audio Note DAC 5 used. No big deal, I sold it out at very near the same cost 22 months later. But I am now obsessed with the Kassandra Ref II, I have a good feeling about it, and have chatted with a lot of owners, some who had my Audio Note DAC 5. Exciting times ahead then.