Well, at least the Theta Gen V isn't using anything that is truly unobtanium, like Ultraanalog chips, and if you nudge Schiit the right way, you may be able to get them to help if something does go wrong. $1200-1400 is probably OK considering market prices.

PCM63 chips are unobtanium. Some of the transistors on the board may also be unobtanium. The Gen V boards went through a few revisions. Mike Moffat left Theta before most of the revisions on Gen V. He was long gone when Va came out. Asking Schiit for help on something that a few of them were involved in with another company 25 years ago... that's really pushing it.

PCM63 are available depends on which one K, KII or Y or P
Not sure about fakes, how can you make a fake working dac chip

PCM63 are available depends on which one K, KII or Y or P
Not sure about fakes, how can you make a fake working dac chip

I think they take a reg pcm63 p and add a k

In preparation for receiving my Yggy next week, I'd like to describe the dacs that I'm coming from. See my profile for gear, but I mostly used the V2 -> hd600.

Schiit Gungnir w/ usb gen 2 & wyrd - A fun an exciting dac to listen to. Smooth treble, solid hitting bass, and sweet mids all around. It is a dynamic dac though, so not the best for people looking for a laid back sound. It's a very good for a D-S dac. The biggest strengths of the gungnir is its tonality and lack of digititus. The biggest weaknesses I feel, is its detail extraction and soundstaging. The dac just doesn't seem to be able to extract much information from recordings as the two vintage dacs that I have. The wyrd does make a subtle difference, mostly improving in imaging, soundstaging and blackness in the background. Highly recommended dac for those who prioritize tonality over technicalities. Not recommended for use with hd800s or he-560s. I prefer to use speakers with the gungnir than headphones. They just seem to work better together.

Parasound D/AC-1100 w/ gustard u12 - My current favorite dac. Huge, but doesn't get hot. Uses 2 PCM63 chips (mine are upgraded with K grade). Extracts a ton of micro and macro detail from recordings. I never thought that the hd600s were so capable of scaling up so high. This dac has been the most significant upgrade for the past year. Aside from the detail retrieval, this dac has fantastic imaging and better soundstaging compared to the gungnir. While the bass doesn't quite hit as hard as the gungnir, it is much more detailed, well extended, and rumbles deeper. While I wouldn't exactly call the treble smooth, it is not harsh in any way. I feel like this is what a vintage R2R dac sounds like.

Sonic Frontiers Transdac w/ gustard u12 - Another excellent R2R dac, using PCM1702. It has a very smooth and somewhat warm tone to it compared to the gungnir and parasound. It's not as detailed as the parasound, but maybe on-par with the gungnir. It's hard to say, I've never directly compared the two. Overall while I like what it does for the bass, it doesn't do enough of the other technicalities. For its size and price, It's very hard to beat as long as you pair it with the right amp and headphones. Opamps can be rolled on this dac btw, allowing you to trade some bass performance for some more clarity and soundstaging.

I think Marv was spot-on with his generalizations of PCM63 and PCM1702, especially concerning these two vintage dacs.