The implementation, not the chip

Off-the-shelf DAC chips don't cost more than $100. So when a DAC costs $2,000, $5,000 or $25,000, you are not paying for the chip. You are paying for the implementation.

I learned it climbing my own ladder. The Eversolo A6 Master Edition carries dual ESS chips, and the Eversolo A8 at $2,000 beat it on all fronts: more detail, better imaging, more refinement. The HiFi Rose RS150 at $5,000 was better still.

Different DACs with different power supplies and different analogue stages sound different. As you move up to more robust implementations, different also becomes better. And by better I mean what I always mean: more convincing to what live sound sounds like.

Let me be clear about what that does to a spec sheet. The chip name tells you the starting point and nothing about the power supply feeding it or the analogue stage that turns it into music. Once you understand why different chassis need different power supplies, you start dismissing the logic of every all-in-one device.

Two DACs with the same chip can be miles apart. Read the chip name last, if at all.