That is an audio myth that people can hear the difference. It may have been possible several years back before when there was a known ESS IMD hump, but even then it was quite unlikely that it was truly audible. You have to remember that the manufacturers use language in their marketing to gain the consumers attention and the create an expectation. That is how they attempt to differentiate themselves. The reality is that DAC chips are now so well designed that they are audibly transparent, meaning they do not colour the sound.
Any DAC that has a sound is flawed, period. It isn't an opinion, it isn't up for debate, it would be flawed. A DAC has one job, and one job only which is to take a digital stream and convert it to analogue output. It is extremely easy to do so in an audibly transparent fashion and it has been for years. Speakers introduce colour into a system, and that makes sense why. Your amp and your DAC are out of the way and it is the speaker or headphone that introduces colour.
I currently own and use two DACs, one has an ESS chip, the other a AKM. I have owned more than one example of both chips before and I never believed that they sound different. Those who tell you otherwise are making claims that they sound different because they were conditioned by reading what others told them they would hear. Nobody is doing proper level matched, multiple trial, blind listening tests. You get an ESS based DAC and an AKM based DAC, properly designed. Have them absolutely level matched and do ten trials blind where they are compared. If 9 out of 10 trials you can tell the two apart, you have some proof. Simply listening to them sighted provides zero evidence.
