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Well, almost. The idiom "garbage in, garbage out" gets thrown around way too often here. I like to think of that phrase as being more suited for file bitrate or source
material, but I do think that there is a thin layer of garbage in DACs. These are the DACs that do not measure well and do not convert the digital signal faithfully as they are supposed to. Ultra-vintage and tube DACs can fall into this category.
Once you get past that thin film of crap, the rest is pure gold. Most importantly, the "pure gold" DACs
aren't expensive to produce -- even this EMU 0204 is likely more expensive than the cheapest of them. Why pay actual pure gold prices when you can get the same level of performance for much less?
I think that you never listened to pure gold. Most dacs sound indeed very similar (the vast midfi, hifi ad pro ones), there are many bad ones and a hand(not)ful of really "pure gold".
I urge you try a controlled test where the analog outputs of the DACs are level-matched, and see if you can tell a difference without knowing which DAC is which. They should sound the same; in a controlled test outliers will fall out of pure gold and into garbage as they are not reproducing the signal faithfully.
I have, and they dont.
Ultimately you have the right idea. Buy professional equipment (with the highest-end headphones you can afford, since transducers actually do make a very, very palpable difference), and in meet conditions put your system in a black box and calibrate the levels, and I'm sure you'll put many much more expensive systems to shame.
Professional equipment, with a few notable exceptions has the only requisites of neutrality and accouracy. Any piece of crap that measures within the standards (of the few measurements used which are way usufficient to evaluate the sound quality of an equipment piece, but this is another topic) will be used by professionals depending on their budget.
In general, you get a minimum decent standard with pro equipment and excellent price/performance ratio.
The good thing in all of this is I realized my DAC, headphone amp, and speaker amp are all in the pure-gold-class. The bad news is that I grossly overpaid for this level of performance -- $1200, when I could have gotten away with it for considerably cheaper. I'm not complaining though as there are still significantly worse values to be had in value (just peruse the portable amp thread and you'll get an idea of what I mean).
You are listening in the "silver-plated copper" class, maybe even lesser. But as longas you are happy...