Next best exponential DAC quality level?

For op, if $400 is all you can pay for a dac than your list of dac's is great. If you are curious what better dac's could sound like I think you should try a $1k dac, a $2k dac and maybe a $3-5k dac also. If you still can't hear any difference they just be happy with whatever you got. If you do hear a difference you may still choose to stay at or below $1k, it is up to you.

I personally don't think measurements are that important but for those who argues that it is the most important thing you should remember that the company dCS also thinks measurements are _very_ important. They produce dac's from about $15k and up. So they must be able to measure things that improve even in that price range.

I want to buy new speakers before trying to upgrade my dac but if I do I will probably look at the offerings from $1k - $2k there seems to be a lot of good ones in that range.

I think the op should listen critically to his $400 DAC, and then a $1000, $2K, $3K, heck even a $30K DCS. I wonder how many people have done a blind comparison side by side of a $400 modern DAC with a DCS, or maybe a Mola Mola, great engineering in both of those. I would highly encourage. I expect it will be enlightening.

Wouldn't you love to see a reviewer do a comparison unsighted of a bunch of DACs over a wide price range all with similar design outcomes? I remember that Passion For Sound guy did one. Then he spent two more videos trying to justify why he could not hear a difference. Good times.

Person1: But what about my choice

Person2: Science cannot measure that - so it is irrelevant

Preferences may be observed and measured in the context of which you talk about. Person 2 is possibly incorrect in the observation and any conclusion drawn from that can be doubted..

A fellow called Paul Samuelson proposed something about revealed preferences. It has taken on a few forms, none of which are without criticism (and that's fine), but its nevertheless illustrative.

I won’t go into details, but Wiki provides its usual barely friendly word salad.

@noske, that is really interesting. I have seem what I assume are related concepts in economic classes long ago, but don't remember this.

@cindyment yeah, and I like how its called GARP...cool.

Despite it involving fairly standard ideas (utility, indifference curves etc), it does have some issues including those mentioned in as few words as possible in the Wiki link. Whenever someone like Hal Varian becomes interested you know its graduate level complexity.

Also, it suggests issues that are being explored at a variety of levels which some correctly say diverges too far from classical economics, like the recent popularity of nudge theory in behavioral economics.

I guess what my point was that consumer preferences may be measured, analysed and squeezed at the most micro and personal of levels - AI and neural networks, eh? Ask the elites at Amazon, Facebook, and at a basic level maybe some way too close to home to even mention......