where to start?

[elementx]

ok so i've been building chipamps and such for a while, and got a lot of great info from diyaudio... now lets look at the audio source...

if one were to attempt to build a dac, where would they start? what chips should i be researching?

 

[elementx]

ok, i guess nobody here really has a clue.

 

[Fin]

Appearently this is one of the best (if not the best) implementations of an external DAC that you will find.

DIY PCM63 DAC

Even if you don't build this one - you will learn a lot just from studying its design and attention to detail - especially to jitter reduction.

Here is a thread by someone who built it:
PCM63 Tube DAC

I have most of the parts but wonder if I will ever get aroung to building it....

 

[Fin]

At the other end of the spectrum, you could start with a simple non-oversampling TDA1543 or TDA1545 DAC. There are lots of kits available for these.