Abstract: A general digital-to-analog (DAC) topology spectrally shapes the DAC conversion noise caused by analog circuit mismatches. In particular, highly practical first-order and second-order noise-shaping DACs are special cases of a general topology. The topology extends the practicality of using noise-shaping DACs in .DELTA..SIGMA. data converters. The first-order DAC is at least as hardware efficient as previously known DACs, but offers the advantage that it is amenable to a simple dithering technique capable of eliminating spurious tones. The second-order DAC is more hardware efficient than previously known DACs, and generally has a large spurious-free dynamic range without any dithering. Moreover, the present invention allows DACs with other types of noise-shaping characteristics (e.g., bandpass noise-shaping characteristics) to be designed based on general DAC topology.