DAC Comparisons using AI

It is helpful to understand and be aware of your own subjective listening preferences. Just asking AI to pick the best DAC out of two will get you nowhere. However by knowing what sonic attributes you most appreciate and enjoy, and then asking questions that cause the search to expound on what you will hear from certain equipment, AI can be helpful in keeping you from heading down the wrong path. Back in the day, it might have helped me save money and stay out of rabbit holes.

OK, just beware the "unknown unknowns"!

Don't trust AI.   It is just an aggregate of Q and A that gets regurgitated whether it is fact or opinion.   

Do a search on any component , your hits are all pulled from the very forums we all belong to along with Reddit and every other site out there.  

Trust your ears 

@mitch2 - I have absolutely been using ChatGPT for research on audio equipment. I have actually found it very useful when I provide my entire system, with all the details, down to USB and power cables, in the evaluations of potential options. 

And here is the thing, when I ask questions related to how a configuration of different components will sound (I own lots of different amps, dacs, speakers), the descriptions of the likely sound signature are pretty spot on. 

@bluethinker - My experience is the same as yours.  I have found it helpful in confirming thoughts I already have about certain gear.  For example, no matter how highly regarded the EMM Labs DV2i, and no matter how convenient it would be to have the streamer and volume control all in one unit with the DAC, it is simply not going to provide the type of sonic signature I enjoy so, even when one comes up for sale at a good price, I need to pass.  My AI query confirmed this.

It would be great if every time I become interested in a component then I could try it in my own system but, of course, that is not possible.  If using AI as a tool, I can reduce the field of components I seriously consider, then that is helpful to me.  As pointed out by @oddiofyl, AI does pull information from a wide variety of sources including these forums, professional reviews, product marketing BS, and more.  However, by providing enough background facts and information, and asking questions that are specific and concise, I have been getting what seems to be practical, realistic, and helpful responses. 

On another point, the computing power required to perform the inference and generate responses associated with AI must be huge. It is hard to believe AI activities can be accomplished so quickly and at a cost of basically nothing to the end user.  It is not hard to understand why so many new data centers and power plants are planned since what we are doing with AI so far is barely scratching the surface.