Mivera
Major Contributor
That counts as pretty exciting news then - that a CMOS S/C opamp based DAC beats out one with on-chip resistors. I'll have to order up a Taobao AKM board to have a play myself.
Don't expect any old cheap chinese AKM based DAC to be anywhere in the league of this. But if you want something that could give the Herus a run for this money, check this one out:
http://www.diyinhk.com/shop/audio-kits/68-768khz32bit-ak4490eq-dac-i2sdsd-input.html
Just make sure you use very good power supplies as there's no onboard regulation. In the end you will probably end up paying more than the Mirand DAC, and only have sound as good as the $499 Herus. It will also be a big mess of wires, boards and transformers. Let alone all of the work. Nothing comes assembled. You get a bag of raw parts.