The awful truth is that pretty much everything here is a compromise, 'cause every company who's trying to make a living from what they do has to do it at an overall profit. For this question, that may not necessarily mean that each successively higher numbered chip is more sonically wonderful. Each is designed/manufactured to a price point - features for a price (that's also where the yield, etc. come into the equation). The '92 or '96 chip may or may not be improvements that you can hear at all - they may be manufacturing gains (more-chips-for-less) or packaging (chipset) gains - in profit.
Slappy may or may not be at risk for a big snack - we all probably won't know unless a B-B engineer spills the beans. And even if B-B did gain performance with the higher numbers, as Audioengr & Bombaywalla accurately point out there may not be an improvement to you if the overall system solution isn't better. You can easily bury the best of chips w/ lousy boards and/or support chipsets.
Slappy may or may not be at risk for a big snack - we all probably won't know unless a B-B engineer spills the beans. And even if B-B did gain performance with the higher numbers, as Audioengr & Bombaywalla accurately point out there may not be an improvement to you if the overall system solution isn't better. You can easily bury the best of chips w/ lousy boards and/or support chipsets.