All depends on the sigma-delta modulation engine. Hence HQ Player with the software approach assumes you use a powerful PC and crunches the math properly. When you use a hardware approach like with PBD and DStream, you use limited computing power compared to a modern i7 platform, and so you get an inferior result. Much better to use an outboard modulator compared to the relatively feeble FPGAs those Dacs use.
Not all DSD Dacs are made the same either. The Lampi DSD only plays back a DSD signal and uses no Dac chip, just an elaborate filtration scheme. Furthermore, its PCM engine is nearly totally separate from the DSD engine, so you have 2 Dacs in one box with the respective pathways optimised for the format.
In summary, for DSD, you have the FPGA guys like the PBD/EMM/DSTREAM converting all input to DSD often via multibit DSD which has similarities to PCM, you have the Chords converting DSD input to high rate PCM, you have the Chip Dacs doing DSD - some converting to PCM, some doing DSP/Multi-bit and some doing DSD low filter bypass, and finally you have the elaborate filter box approach for "pure DSD' with no extra processing (so called chip less).