My most recent DAC comparisons were somewhat eye-opening for me, because of how my comparison process highlighted not only the differences between the DACs, but the similarities.
Connecting multiple DACs in a manner that allowed me to basically toggle between them on-the-fly, showed me that the actual differences between the DACs were less than I had previously perceived when I would need to move various cables, re-cue music, and futz around before making comparisons between components. These were all good sounding DACs but my observations made me wonder about the accuracy of the review comments and comparative assessments we read about in cases where the components were listened to days or weeks apart and when, at a minimum, the comparison required moving and re-connecting the components in the reviewer’s system.
I suspect our aural memory is fleeting and our predisposed biases and other outside influences may be greater than we would care to admit.