You can bypass the first (WTA1) filter in the Chord DACs by feeding it 705.6 or 768kHz using any number of upsampling methods… I have used PGGB, HQPlayer and my own modified SoX to mess with upsampling… It is really about the final filtering/noise shaping and analogue out stage that imparts the “sound”… As with EQ, the final filtering/noise shaping and analogue out is really about personal taste… For instance I feed all that is digital into a very analogue tube preamp… 
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Hello Agoldnear,
With respect, you write often as if your opinion or view is fact. The physical ear can adjust to protect it’s self from damage:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Sound/protect.html
I have know this for many years.
Paul
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Thanks… I’ve seen this reference… a very good treatise…
However, it is a relatively slow action and cannot protect the ear from sudden loud sounds like a gunshot. The process is less effective in older ears.
The above is the premise for my response… What is being described in the information you linked is certainly a neurophysiological response to loud transient and loud sustained SPL … It is like the autonomic response of the iris of the eye responding to bright light… more information would be required to correlate the dynamic response of this protective mechanism to specific frequency intensities.
Thanks again for pointing me to the information… 
