A recent article in AudioPhile Review, by Steven Stone discusses "price to actual performance" of some components.
Are You Missing Something?In this article, Steven says the following regarding DACS:
When it comes to digital electronics there is no readily-apparent reason other than the lack of any economies of scale that DACs need to cost over five figures to be sonically excellent. I've heard a number of recently released DACs all priced under $2,000 that sounded as good as I've heard any DAC sound - these include the Aurender "Flow", Geekout V2, and the NuPrime DAC-10. Granted, none of these DACs have thick luxuriant front panels or gold-plated knobs, but they all did digital conversions with a level of finesse that rivaled many DACs I've heard in the past that do sport golden appendages.
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SEE MORE HEREDAC-10 ($1495) and DAC-10H $1795