As a broad rule the budget stuff coming out of China measures extremely well, and tends to have a clean, analytical tone profile. The ESS Sabre DAC family can be too bright/harsh for some people. Many people happily own Sabaj, FiiO, Topping, SMSL, etc. products. I was content with my FiiO Q5 for a while, with its dual AKM 4490 implementation.
DSD512…nice in theory but there’s not a ton of content in DSD, let alone content that one may care about [What genres interest you?]. Also, even plain old CD Redbook 16/44.1 sounds quite good on decent hardware. You may well fail a double blind test.
Many are lured by technical measurements, but don’t tie yourself up in them. I used to look at charts more than I do now. This changed following (1) me liking the sound of something that didn’t measure well, and (2) me not liking the sound of something that did measure well. Tubed products often measure poorly, but have a rabid following too. Your personal experience must be your guide.
The biggest issue with discount brands or new brands is poor resale value. Some of these products can be resold for 25% to 50% of retail (if they can be resold at all), whereas an established brand with a solid reputation might be sold for 75% to 90% of new prices (e.g., Schiit, Chord, Woo, SPL, RME, etc.).
