Too many believe misguidedly that the only governing secret to a good DAC lies only in choosing a flavour-of-the-month “high-end” converter chip.(…. the worst approach are those floated in the YouTube reviews …especially those touting that this approach somehow elevates cheap build models to “high-end” performance strata ….HINT: they don’t ….)
Think more important, in that the essence of high-end audio musicality also resides in the line signal processing stages, the power supplies (transformers, filtering, regulation), the digital signal processing before conversion, the quality of the key components: clocks, transistors, capacitors, etc.
TAKEAWAY:
Without prejudice to intuitively first using your ears to get a first hint in an A-B direct bakeoff, go pop the hood and check out the DAC design, it’s boards layout, separate linear power supplies, segregation and proper shielding isolation for input and outputs, and the components build quality, for some further clues.
You invariably get what you pay for.