Easy to discriminate between DAC ??

Your question is a good one. I am surprised every time I listen and try to discriminate between DAC's. I found it so difficult to articulate any differences I (thought) I was hearing between different DAC's that I sold all I had and went back to one-box players. I have an old CAL Icon Mk II with an 18-bit DAC inside that sounds absolutely great. I have tried running a separate DAC with it, but really could tell no difference, certainly no improvement, so I'm back to the one-box model for now. My other player is a Marantz SA-1 and I do not use a DAC with this SACD player. I have owned Meridian DAC's in the past but had to go really far up their line to finally improve on the sound of a one-box player, to me. So yes, I think you can get great sound and satisfaction with old technology DAC's. But people rave about the latest upsampling DAC's too. It is always a question of personal preference, and what you can live with for the long term. Most A/B tests require spot decisions. Ideally, you should listen to a component for months before deciding. I don't think I've ever taken the time to do that, but I've certainly discovered how much I like or dislike something I've purchased after months of listening.

Sc53 last sentence is right on target! I might add my opinion for digital listening... real live musical instruments and voices do not have edges around them. The other unrealistic digital artifacts I have noticed are an unnaturally forward soundstage and unusually fast and aggressive transients (such as snare drum hits that sound like gunshots). I also try to listen to analog versus digitally mastered CDs, there should be a clear difference.

I think ABing can get confusing sometimes, and I don't think I can get a good feel for something without living with it for a few months. When I first replaced my Bel Canto DAC 1.1 with a Kora Hermes, a big difference didn't register with me immediately. But after listening to it for over two months I realized that there were very noticable differences.

The differences between DACs should be pretty clear.
How do you have the DACs isolated (placement/cones/stands)?
Remember, all DACs contain a preamp to get the signal to 2.0 mv, so place away from other electronics (if possible) and experiment w/isolation tweaks.
What is the rest of your system/cables/isloation stands?

Benthar I can't really isolate it more than the 1 mt cables.
The comparison is made with same cables apart when I compare the dac vs the integrated CD player (CEC) because in such a case I have one additoonal step made with a cheap SPDIF that is probably to my perceive a analog cable 75 ohm not the best for digital signal.
But i can't believe that changing it with a proper cale all the DAC's will improve dramaticaly vs the integrated Cd player. what's the rational here ?
You know i wanted to buy expensive SPDIF cable only when decided for the right one. This because some of them accept AES /EBu and the integrated CD that i could use a transport only will have a preferred digital out in AES. That will be the cable, but sometime dac like theta chroma get only the spdif, the one cheap I have today.
Tks for further comments and i will try to pute cones below. Would you go for rigif decoupling or soft decoupling ? you said cones so I guess go for rigid

At the end all of them have been tested without decoupling .
Cheers