Is there any such thing as a bad sounding DAC these days?

All that I have heard sound good, though relative to cost...had a $200 SMSL that sounded good and had great feature set, but for me the Schiit Bifrost at $800 and the Denafrips Ares at $900 clearly sounded better...and I would have preferred to like the SMSL more than those...currently using a Schiit Modi+ ($129) on desktop and it's awesome for the price and all I need for that use..

I use one of these portable dongle dac/amps with earphones and gotta say it sounds absolute top notch.

https://www.tempotec.net/products/sonata-bhd-pro-usb-dac?srsltid=AfmBOoq7cfgu5t0PI7n5yMOvbZ6MKKB24Z7nvVeCb6IsMXIuvwQ_Wb9U

Also have an older Chord Mojo that cost a lot more and has a “warmer” sound.

At home currently using a couple Cambridge Audio streamers with integrated DAC and have an older mhdt Constantine NOS DAC that is very “musical”. I like them all.

Have heard many others all the way up to DCS, a company that has always helped to set the benchmark for top notch DACs.

Most likely the OP’s question misses the more important question and reality for us Audiophiles. Couple of things to consider. First, a dac cannot play music in your home all by itself as it is part of a complete audio system. Second, what sounds good is very subjective and influenced by system synergy and personal sonic preferences. I have listened to current production dacs that are well reviewed and priced up to $3000 (Benchmark) that just sounded awful to my ears in my system. At the same time I have heard current $1200 dacs (MHDT Lab) that I felt sounded good to my ears and in my system.
My point is this, not all modern day dacs will sound good to all people in all systems. Too many preferences and variables at play making it just impossible. So a modern dac can indeed sound bad in a given situation. To another person in another system my dac findings may be opposite of his. Crazy reality of this passion/hobby.