A tech rep from the Harmon Luxury Group came out to our house to diagnose my system. While he was there he played my system at 35% volume and compared a song played on Tidal and Qobuz. I couldn't believe the added detail when hearing the same song on Qobuz. The volume increased when he switched to Qobuz. I asked him why and he told me the increased resolution acts like increasing the volume because of the added resolution. I am now researching Qobuz to see if they offer the libraries offered by Tidal. So far, most of what I have in my Tidal library is available on Qobuz. I have a few hours left to continue my research then decide.
Next best exponential DAC quality level?
I recently did a shoot out of three DACs using my Hint6 + routing each of the other DACs to analog input on the Hint6:
(1) Hint6: ESS Sabre32 -- Integrated
(2) SMSL M500: ES9038PRO D/A ~$400
(3) Khadas ToneBoard(v1): ESS ES9038Q2M - ~$99
I played the same song passages on Amazon Music and was able to cycle through each Hint6 input corresponding to each DAC.
The result? Very small difference in terms of rendering. Maybe a more open sound stage with better overall balance using the Hint6 DAC. The Khadas was more bass / midrange pronounced w/ a more narrow soundstage. However, I wouldn't suggest that any were head-and-shoulders "better" over the others. In fact, they were all pretty decent with only small nuances (certainly not worth the price differences.
I decided to keep the Khadas for my small headphone listening area.
But it got me thinking - how much would one have to spend to realize an exponential difference in quality? Is the Khadas that good, or is DAC technology differences more nuanced than I originally thought (meaning, we're paying 10x for only 5% better).