I started my headphone journey by working my way up from cheap and frugal gear toward more expensive stuff. I was very willing to entertain “dragon slayer” deals and believe the measurements-are-best thinking of NwAvGuy and ASR. It didn’t work.
Cheaper DACs often have BLOODY OBVIOUS flaws. Per my comment above a few weeks ago, playback artifacts are routine at the low end. I spent years trying to avoid whines and whistles and ringing and headaches with my HD 600. I went from integrated laptop and tablet DAC/amps to budget standalone models. Every one of my first ~6 DACs whistled and whined and caused discomfort (e.g., Cirrus Logic, ESS, AKM), but they were all different. With my intentionally rough 3-hour evaluation playlist, I’d expect ringing or hissing or stabbing pain at a certain note on a certain song.
With every new DAC and amp, how far will it make it? None of the cheaper ones made it through the last third of my list.
In the end, I no longer suffer with a Bifrost 2/64 and Decware Zen Taboo Mk 4 amp. That’s $800 for the DAC and $3,000+ for the amp. I’ve demoed many higher end DACs, but they sometimes add heavy creamy filtering or don’t add significant value.
Measurements mean little. Price matters up to a point, and then products shift to the luxury and novelty markets where performance doesn’t matter.