Like Dave and Troy said, this guy’s video only looks at the cost of some chips. You can buy those from Digikey for about $5 to $15 depending on which ones you are wanting to use.
But this is like saying, most all cars use gasoline, so there’s no difference between cars. Well, not exactly.
Jason Bourne seems to think a $200 SMSL DAC is going to sound the same as a $4000 Holo Audio DAC. In his system it might. LOL. (Just kidding). But others with better systems and better ears, and especially if using good headphones, you will likely hear a nice difference. We all just have to decide where on the price to performance ratio we want to land - and the synergy between the DAC and the rest of our systems.
The good thing is that yeah, the $200 SMSL DAC isn’t "bad". The days of "bad DACs" are long in the past now and we are lucky for that.
We all have different ears (hearing) and sonic priorities. Some may say natural tone or body of sounds and the attack and decay are most important, others will say soundstage and imaging. Some want it all, if they can get it at a price they are willing to pay. We choose our priorities.
