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

@audioman58 Great choice! I have considered the same one when I upgraded from the (Swiss) Merason Frérot. But then decided for the (French) Métronome Le Dac 2 which sounded a little better to my ears.

My subjective observation is yes, but...

Around 2000 DAC's universally improved how well they played Redbook.  The days of big jumps in sound quality between a 44.1/16 bit recording and 96/24 have all but vanished with only very small differences probably brought on by the digital filters.

Can you still make a terrible DAC?  Not sure, but while the Topping D90 (or whatever I have in a box) measures great I don't listen to it for long. 

Don't forget about how improvements in ADC;s have contributed to this.

I am of the opinion that competently designed DACs have been sounding the same for over 10 years (provided the design goal is total linearity).
If a user prefers a certain coloration, a certain design, or certain features - hey, all the power to them and that’s also why there are many choices.
My last DAC acquisition was in 2023 or so, a JDS Labs Element 3 for my home office workstation. It has all sorts of filter tuning and you can do things like EQ or add H2/H3 harmonics... but I simply haven’t touched anything after the novelty of having those choices wore off.

The sound-quality range, if you will, of digital audio is far more narrow than analog audio's, and it continues to narrow down.