To be clear that
isn't what I said. What I said was that if DACs are doing things correctly, they will start to sound the same.
Which model? Having heard many DACs in our system one thing I've found that really affects people's perception of sound quality is expectation bias on account of the Veblen Effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
For a long time the best digital system I had heard was the Stahltek, which with the transport and DAC was about $72,000.00. This system was marketed by Purist Audio (and if any here know Albert Porter, he was an advocate of this setup, also saying it was the best he had heard as well). We were showing with the designer at RMAF a few years back and he played a cut I also had on LP. So we played them side by side. As soon as he heard the LP version he turned to me and said "Digital has
such a long way to go". I've always felt his pragmatism was why his DAC was the best I'd heard.
Purist Audio pulled the plug on Stahltek a few years back so I can't do a comparison like that, but I still have the LP. The Topping does quite well against it although I still prefer the LP. What the Topping does is it doesn't annoy; it makes things like streaming off of YouTube (which doesn't otherwise have good sound) perfectly listenable (although not the 'best', whatever that is). It also sounds better than many DACs I've heard over the years. If this unit had appeared 10 years ago it would have been market disruptive.
I heard a Topping E30 ($125.00) blow a $4000 Monarcy DAC out of the water- the Monarcy IMO was bright, thin, lacking detail and depth, even using the tube output. The Topping was smoother, relaxed and more detailed (and the D90 is a better; with the D90SE better than that...). I guess this all comes down to 'in comparison to what'; my take on digital is as long as it isn't annoying so I don't have to think about the sound quality I'm happy. Put another way I have lowered expectations for digital so its nice when those expectations are exceeded. The Topping has done way more than that.