First of all, it’s dCS, not dSC, and to my knowledge, their least expensive model starts at around $22,000.
Personally, I don’t own (but have auditioned) any streamer over $1,000. That said, I believe you can clearly hear the difference between a Wiim and a truly high-end streamer—at least in terms of pricing. This belief comes from the ability to easily distinguish differences among sub-$1,000 streamer/DAC units out of my humble system. The real question is: where does the point of diminishing returns begin?
Price doesn’t play the music. For example, my $399 Cambridge Audio MXN100 sounds noticeably better than (1) the $330 Wiim Ultra (with Smsl ddc), (2) the $399 iFi ZS, and even significantly better than the $850 Eversolo A6. All were tested using their internal streaming sections, the same external DAC, and low-noise power supplies. The sonic differences are apparent and, in my opinion, may mostly come down to two specs, including (1) jitter noise and (2) electrical noise, that one needs to watch over in selecting the gear.
Finally, I encourage you to treat your room acoustics, optimize speaker placement, carefully select cables based on specifications (not ad-hoc recommendations), be mindful of system synergy, and train your ears to better reveal those differences.
