I'm looking to do a major upgrade from my PS Audio DSS to the EMM Labs DA2, but I am concerned it may be two steps forward, one step back in terms of the digital input quality. Over the years I've found that my digital input chain is more crucial than the actual DAC it is plugged into.
I know...
Apparently many DACs that use I2S architecture and related chipsets do not correctly convert 16 bit samples to 24 or 32 bit words prior to conversion. What measures are typically taken to correct this problem, as described below? Which chipsets and DAC architectures are more subject to it...