The sound quality from DACs - is it all the same?

The $3500 DAC is the Auralic Vega, the $11,000 DAC the Bricasti M1SE with network streamer.  It seemed that the sound improvement between the lesser DAC steps were maybe 40% improvement, the Vega to M1SE was about 20-30%.  I wonder how much more improvement there might be over the M1SE but I seriously doubt I will have funds to find that out.

The thing about increasingly expensive DACs in a really good system is that small differences are increasingly significant in the sound presentation. I have the most pleasing DAC I have heard in my system (the Audio Research Reference CD9SE).. before that a Sim Audio 650D (now replaced by the newer and better sounding 750) and a Berkeley Reference Alpha 3 ($17K, $18K, and $22K). Each were excellent and sounded far better than notably less expensive ones. Each worthy of their cost because of their sound quality. 

@rlawry 

Which $360 DAC is?  Thx.

So it seems this thread is coming to the conclusion that better sounding DACs don't meet any objective engineering requirements better than cheaper dacs. It's not that they produce the signal more precisely, but that they add some special sauce that creates a more pleasant stereo listening experience for some listeners who find the experience worth the extra cost. 

@lanx0003  The $360 DAC was the SMSL SU-8 v.2 Anniversary Edition.