Dac Technology Mature?

Mature, yes, in the sense that you can engineer tube amps that sound a lot like solid state, and solid state amps that sound a lot like tubes.  W.r.t. DACs, unless you go out of your way to engineer something that sounds a lot different from the crowd (which may or may not be a good thing), there's a lot of convergence doing on: different topologies, different chips, etc., end up with a sound that is really pretty similar--and which is only picked apart by audio reviewers looking for something to hang their hat on.

Hey my 20, 23 actually, year old DAC sounds just fine thanks! Love that old R2R technology, wedded to a robust power supply and tubed analog output stage of course.

Hey my 20, 23 actually, year old DAC sounds just fine thanks! Love that old R2R technology, wedded to a robust power supply and tubed analog output stage of course.

Same here. Old R2R; check.  Tube output stage; check.  Robust power supply check.  The only difference is that mine is *only* 16 years old.  As I stated in another post (I'll respond to that one shortly), my old 16 year old DAC sounds very close (but slightly better in some ways) than my newer DACs.

A dac is a dac is a dac . Plain old inexpensive days will feed you the data bit perfect . Not cool enough you say ? Spend more where the designer has added more treble , more bass , etc .... And a fancier case the more you spend .

Lots of opinions;

I just did a comparison of my Meridian Explorer2 with a Exogal Comet DAC.
Many thanks to one of our Audio Group for alowing the comparison.

I have found ( to my ears) that a true comparison needs to be done on a system that you are " intimately familiar with and its sound quality"

We compared both & MQA, too ; via Tidal.

I found it easy to hear more details, more depth and more width of soundstage.  Tonality was different, but not huge.
It was maybe a designer preference?

AND it was my system. It is easier to hear differences on the home system that I've listened to a lot.

When I go to my buddies houses, they all sound great, but with variables due to their individual tastes
I have to listen quite a while longer to detect differences.
My buddies have great ears & great systems.
I'm kinda the yellow belt & they are the black belts, but I'm learning...

My guess, Is I can hear 10-15% more details/ resolution in the better models.

Anyway, my opinion

My goodness, what a strange hobby

jeff