I where thinking more in general terms for R2R compared to preferred new technology. But your numbers are not wrong and should i theory even be smoother given there are parallel chips
One can wonder if it actually have genuine PCM1704K chips in the first place as low distortion figures are not considered the singular factor to its house sound.
I'm not biting and I do not know which would end up as the best sounding. But I do know from experiance with distortion stomp boxes that multiple transistor circuits with minimal distortion in each stage create a more plesant meaty tone than a diode clipper in an filtered feedback loop on an op-amp.
Agreed, they are horrible as measuring devices. But they're connected to my brain and together with the sense of self I'm able to say I prefer the sound coming from button A over the sound coming from button B. And living with a setup where I can switch between A and B over a period of months I don't even have to trust my incredible short memory but simply take notice of whish button got the most use
Then try to figure out as to why this is.
In my setup M7 adds more meat to the sound. Fuller low mid and mid. As a whole this sound suits the rest of my setup with two way speakers. Other with bigger speakers having more output in the low mid might have a different experiance.
And here lies the problem with trusting measurements and hearsay from the web. What sound good in my place with my hearing have zero value for others. And it seems measurements provided rarly align with what users perceive as plesant in any given setup. Ususally speakers fall short here.
As I said previously, I do not possess golden ears and are puzzled by the fact I do not prefer great measuring devices to handle the digital to analog conversion. And for the record, I where not able to tell RME and Topping apart. But M7 being a colorbox it is where easy.