If we can hear the difference between competently designed DACs that absolutely means that something is wrong. A $10 000 DAC that is well designed and implemented will sound the same as a well designed and implemented $300 DAC as long as both the digital conversion stage and the analogue output stage are capable of audible transparency. All of the zeros after the decimal place beyond audibility are completely meaningless. The Modius for example will sound just as wonderful as the Yggy when blind listening. Those people who "test" with their eyes are really testing with their wallets and the more expensive the device is and looks, the better it tests. I owned and really enjoyed a first Gen Gungnir, purchased brand new from Schiit. I even did the USB board upgrade myself.
The sort of argument as you are presently making does emerge over and over again in audio circles.
Its a variation/extension of the argument that if two pieces of equipment measure very similarly then they should sound essentially identical in blind tests —but we know beyond any reasonable doubt that this is simply not at all the case universally.
Let me offer a contrary perspective on this:
I would argue that such positions unfortunately represent rather extreme and Procrustean oversimplification, and as such, are not really logically supportable.
We know that psychoacoustic loadings are varied, and work in several ways to color perception. We tend to forget: human beings can be just as perceptually biased *against* perceiving actual sonic differences as they can be biased towards hearing differences that do not exist outside of their preconceptions.
Along with those who tend to “hear what they want to hear” there are perhaps just as commonly those who “don’t hear what they don’t want to hear”. Fortunately, it would seem most of us who enjoy quality reproduction of recorded music are not so rigid in our presumptions, in either of these ways, and can therefore freely make reasonably honest and meaningful observations and commentaries about qualitative sound differences when experienced.
This biggest problem with promulgating such a dogmatic argument, as I see it, is that this can unduly confuse people who are new to the enjoyment of quality audio reproduction and also intimidate them away from openly articulating what they are actually noticing when listening.
In my opinion, as such, there is simply a dead-end of unhelpfulness and inflexibility implied by the assumption of such a rigid stance.
