Rod_S - As you are probably aware there are many DACs designed using identical DAC chips that sound completely different than each other. If it were only so easy as to choose the proper DAC chip, but the ultimate performance level is dependent on many other design factors. There are sonic factors influenced by power supply design, jitter reduction, digital filtering, and many other design choices. So even if the DAC chips used by Esoteric and Bryston were identical or very close in specs, it is unlikely that they will sound the same. Another similar example is Accuphase, which uses the ESS Sabre DACs in some of their recent designs. They however do not sound anything like the majority of other DACs on the market using the same or similar ESS DACs.