I have no idea what most of it means (...) (1-bit - bitstream, was very popular when I bought my home CD player in around 1990, and Philips like it). "Noise shaping" was something which used to appear on a lot of panasonic gear, but I have no idea what it means.

Right, that's the sort of thing I'm asking about. What's the difference between these technologies, and, from an audiophile point of view, how important are they?

You sounded ever-so-slightly defensive in that last post, Hugo. Please understand I wasn't trying to cast aspersions upon the Empeg's output stage. I'm just trying to (a) understand the differences between various DAC implementations, and (b) find out what can be heard, if anything, as differences between the various implementations.

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Tony Fabris