1 bit dacs vs burr brown dacs

I Am Trying to set up a grat car system. I have some confusion on how to get the best sound. I wanted a 2 din DVD player but I dont believe I will get the best sound. So I decided I wanted pure sound over the DVD. So I have been looking at Denon, McIntosh, and Alpines. I have seen all kinds of DAC setups, so I want to know whats best. Alpine has 4 chips at 18bit Burr brown, Denon has a 2 chip at 20bit Burr brown, and Mcintosh has a 2x24 Burr Brown.    I understand that the higher bit is better, so the 24 bit is better, but what is the gain in 4 DACs over 2 DACs? if any? Thanks for any help in this!

Truthfully I don't think you will really be able to hear the difference in a 1 bit DAC and a 24 bit DAC, the real difference will come from the quality of design of the rest of the circuitry. You could put a 1 billion bit DAC in a new Sony head unit and it will still sound like a mentally challenged 5 year old slave designed it. Head units are like speakers, you need to go take a listen to see which one processes the sound the way you like it. I have a Eclipse CD5100 and a CD7000, I did a swap in my truck for back to back listening, and although they are the same brand, the CD5100 sounded like crap compared to my CD7000, I did everything I could to get them to sound the same, but it just wasn't going to happen, the CD7000 just has way far superior of a design. With head units, you really do get what you pay for.2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

Don't forget the Kenwood quad DAc with dual offset.

I have personally never been a fan of 1bit DACs. They ARE audibly different than the 24-bit models, and my opine would be to stick with the higher order bit units. The benefit to 1-bit? CHEAP!!! And if the DAC is cheap, why would the manufacturer spend lots more money on the rest of the circuitry, when they are skimping out on the FIRST ANALOG STAGE in the whole thing? Answer... They WON'T. To me, 1-bit means "cheap", or "mass-market"... Also, EVERY 1-bit DAC is as GOOD AS IT WILL EVER BE!!! DSD is, mathematically, right now, the best it can EVER GET, whereas multi-bit PCM is literally infinitely perfectable, meaning it will (well, CAN) ALWAYS get better!It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Exactly, good point! If the manufacture is going to be putting a higher bit rate DAC they generally will be making better circuitry to compliment it. IMO the head unit should be the most important device in your system, no matter how good of speakers you have, the signal will only be as good as what the head unit can produce.2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

OK, so, the question is what is better, four 18 bit DACs or two 24 bit DACs? I think I have gathered that there will be little difference in sound reproduction. My set up is front and rear MB Quart separates with 6.5 mid woofers, Q series, I have a soundstream rub-angina amp running my JL Audio 10" woofer and a sony explode 4ch amp for the MB quarts, havent decided on the head unit yet. Looking at the older denons or Mcintosh, or I have found a stand alone Nakamichi DAC, but the problem there is there is only a left and right output, not sure that I want to split the signal because of line loss, does anyone have any suggestions? Also, I would like to thank everyone for their input. It has been very helpful.    Randall

Dump the Sony and don't buy a cap!