The overshoot appears to be in the delta-sigma feedback loop. Obviously, delta sigma converters don't operate at 44.1 kHz. I'd note too that
someone from ESS says that the overshoot is audible.
I note too that you've heard differences as well. Honestly, everybody and his mother has heard "Sabre glare." I heard it long before I even knew that there was such a thing.
As to objective measurements, those only work if you make the right measurements and interpret their psychoacoustic effect. To use an obvious example, speakers that measure flat in a two channel room sound tipped up. This phenomenon has been long known, hence the use of a "house curve" to normalize subjective response. It's one of many examples of how measurements must be interpreted in the light of psychoacoustics. Those who naively assume that the DAC with the measurements that "look good" will be more accurate may be disappointed.
Here, for example, is Amirm's measurement of the Yggdrasil's linearity:
View attachment 30219
Looks awful, right? The Topping is clearly more accurate. Or is it?
Note the levels. Even if you fry your speakers and ears with 120 dB peak output levels, the Schiit doesn't show half a dB dB of nonlinearity until maybe -105 dB. That's going to be at a level of 15 dB SPL -- *below the threshold of hearing in a listening room.* So if we consider audibility rather than visual impressions,
the linearity of these DAC's is identical.
But, as I've pointed out several times, Amirm didn't measure impulse response. This
is an area in which the DAC's differ, audibly, according to ESS.
As far as the HF emphasis (and some other things go), I don't pretend to know which is more accurate. Most of the measurements I've seen can't tell me that, because the measured levels of most of these things are inaudible in almost any good DAC. Even Amirm's nightmarish measurements of the TotalDAC don't tell us much -- he said he didn't hear most of what he measured.
In my experience, most equipment designers put a lot of effort into correlating measurements with audibility. When they find something that matters -- clock stability, say -- they use the measurements to refine their design. Someone like John Siau can interpret measurements with a practiced eye, but most of us cannot.
So when I hear a difference, I frequently don't know which device is correct. Just what I like. Even distortion could be in the original recording and simply more obvious in the better performing device.
But just looking at the measurements doesn't solve that problem, unless the measurement is far worse than these are.
To really know which device is better, you have to compare it to an analog input -- and unfortunately I'm not set up to do that now. Because all the measurement above tells you is that you're measuring a ladder DAC rather than a delta-sigma one.