My experience in this regard has FAR less to do with the audio market as I work in very high end semiconductors.
Burr Brown doesn't make bad DACs. However, they were once regarded so highly that they allowed themselves to languish as they were really one of the only DAC makers end consumers knew. This name recognition was their golden ticket as consumer fair was the best game in town for DACs. In the wake of cellular technology and the advances in telcos, this is no longer true. Sadly, TI bought Burr some time ago and the net result has resulted in their competition moving ahead of them. Cirrus makes fantastic DACs as does ADI now. There are more but those are the ones you're most likely to hear about.
I'd agree with this pretty well:
In reply to:
Although on some other boards I've seen anguishing over DACs, I think that it's time wasted. You could of course look at the Cirrus site for technical info, but there's no reason for concern at this level of excellence.
When you're trying to build a cellular base station, those capable of producing good DACs make up a small group but a basic 24/96 DAC is relatively easy these days, I believe.
