Here is a compiled list of DAC IC, sorted by year, going back to early 1980-ies for some types, showing THD+N and dynamic range A-wtd.
A quote from the link:
>>>There is obviously more to DAC performance than just these numbers, notably digital filter performance (many more recent DACs are not exactly pretty in terms of periodic ripple, and lots of DACs capable of 384 kHz and up essentially "cheat" by bypassing most of their digital filtering beyond 192 kHz), handling of clock jitter (some like ESS essentially have built-in ASRC), 0dBFS+ handling (anything with built-in ASRC like ESS or TI PCM179x tends to hard-clip at 0 dBFS, more traditional parts generally have about 2 dB and change of headroom), power consumption and features, but as an illustration of progress I figured this table should do.
You can see how in just 6 years, delta-sigma converter IC dynamic range increased by 20 dB, and 30 dB over a decade, absolutely massive improvements to the point where analog noise became a dominating factor. In the same decade, distortion went down by 15-17 dB as well, which if taken together with the increased demands brought about by reduced noise and inevitably limited maximum power draw must mean substantially more complex analog circuitry as well.
If you were an equipment manufacturer in the late '90s, on the one hand you'd be lucky in that you could probably present better performance figures than devices just a few years old, but on the other hand the performance of your brand spanking new model would soon be considered obsolete as well; if you're lucky, you would be able to adopt a new better replacement part. Things have not been nearly as turbulent again since the mid-2000s, although with the advent of DAC + headphone amp ICs like the CS43130/131 (DAC-only cousin: CS43198) in recent years, near-130 dB dynamic range has never been more pocket-sized or affordable.
You may have noticed that Crystal Semiconductor did not have a TOTL double speed DAC, while AKM did. We'll find sort of the reverse in the ADC world, with AKM coming out with their last TOTL single-speed ADC a few weeks after Crystal brought out their first double-speed model.
AKM in recent years seems to have been going with a "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" approach, somewhat reminiscent of Burr-Brown in the early '90s. Clearly, there isn't much left for DAC performance to go at this point – dynamic range is pretty much maxed out, just distortion could still go down some more.
Note: I'm mostly listing delta-sigma DACs with built-in digital filters here, which in the beginning weren't nearly as high-end. If you wanted best dynamic range in the '90s, you'd generally come up with some contraption involving traditional multibit DACs (I have added some now) or even hybrids using a separate digital filter as it was common in the olden days. The Pacific Microsonics Model One ADC + DAC was reputed to be able to pull off <-120 dBFS of noise in loopback (D/A --> A/D), way back in the mid-late '90s. Mind you, these units sold at cost (!) for around 15 grand or something, very very advanced stuff for the day.<<<
