That's too bad!! I have to say I'm totally impressed with mine The Sparko op amps, were a subtle, but in the end worthwhile improvement over the Maverick upgrade units. The biggest improvement was, especially after a hour or so warm up, was the Tesla tube. Bass is fuller, and tight. Works great for running my Polk XM tuner through, Smart TV etc. USB works awesome, but saw a excellent improvement from a Wire World Ultraviolet USB cable, and a Interuptor out board 5 volt power supply. Eliminates all freezeups, and really opens up the sound! Pretty incredible!! It's a close second to my Dac Box S FL, that uses a filterless ladder dac chip. The Project also needs a good warm up to sound it's best.
With the exception of the Maverick, I'm done with Delta Sigma chips. The flow and presentation is so enjoyable, it's frankly changed my music listening habits. They are way longer, and I enjoy XM, Internet radio, CD's YouTube almost all equally. Now my listening sessions are much longer and beneficial. Instead of a few minute here and there, because of fatigue. I think if your sold on solid state, look for a ladder, filterless DAC. I think eliminating the filter is key, to get the analog flow and detail, like the Maverick manages with the tube buffer.
I think ladder chips give you the ability to eliminate the filter and it's ringing draw backs, rather then ladder conversion per se.
When you have a really good program source/cd etc, it frankly rivals the best l/p cartridge or reel to reel setups I have ever heard. Pretty cool stuff!!