For those who don’t have experiene with higher end dacs, I might as well try a sloppy way of conveying what you get with each tier, from top to bottom. This is literally off the top of my head overall so it’s not going to be the most thought out, again greatly generalized (notice a trend here lol?), but perhaps this will give some context
This is for new prices btw, not including used, this is basically just how I feel about the different tiers of dacs. This doesn’t include specific synergy, just how I think making the jumps through the tiers end up turning out. Examples are just examples, they don’t mean anything more than that, just showing random options in the range. Assume synergy demands increase with each tier for simplicity and dacs are evaluated with the highest tier amps and headphones to totally reveal synergy. Don’t worry about the names lol
The entry level tier , mainly centered around 100 bucks. Examples include topping e30, earmen donald dac, schiit modi 3+, etc. These dacs offer a step up over your phone/pc build in dacs, and are simple plug and play dacs that do their job well enough, but nothing remarkable, just get the job done. Basically they differences between them are smaller and you are looking for features.
The upper entry level tier which is around 200-300 bucks. Examples include schiit modius, geshelli jnog/enog, aune x8, etc. More features to be had (specifically balanced typically), more features like pre options or more IO, and have a smaller but noticeable step up from the previous tier, further refinement of merely ok, better than just get the job done, but not by much.
The no mans land of dacs, around 300-600 ish bucks. Examples include allo revolution (with shanti lps), topping d70s, smsl m500, etc. You don’t want to be here most of the time, the options generally (with exception of a select few) don’t provide that significant boost in sound quality or features over the upper entry level, so it makes more sense to stick below and save money, or move up and get much larger returns by spending a bit more actually.
The midrange tier of dacs, around 600-1k. Examples include schiit bifrost 2, denafrips ares ii, mytek liberty, etc. This is where you get a big immediate jump in sound quality over previous dacs, and also where things start to branch out and differ significantly from each other, so differences between both the lower tier dacs and the midrange tier of dacs themselves make themselves reasonably apparent. Generally dacs in this range get to where they start to offer reasonable organicness AND technical performance balances that you didn’t get in lower tiers (typically in lower tiers you make more of a sacrifice for one side), good all rounders and reasonably capable. You start to get more spatial recreation, dynamics, timbre, and lower level information which you don’t really get in the lower tiers.
The entry high end tier of dacs, around 1-1.5k. Examples include soekris dac2541, holo cyan, chord qutest. Now you take another step up in technical performance but typically not as far in organicness and refinement, so potentially still trading some blows with midrange tier. Things start to resolve low level detail better, texture becomes something you can now tell is clearly starting to be there, overall clarity improves a fair bit, and spatial recreation gets more holographic, although again not as much of improvements in organics and may make more compromises to get there, things are less balanced here, as some dacs end up deciding which side to favor more.
The midrange high end tier of dacs, around 1.5-2.5k. Examples include holo spring 2 kte, schiit yggy a2, crane song solaris quantum. A solid step above the entry high end and midrange tier overall that’s fairly immediately noticable. This now regains more balance between technical performance, where you get further gains in that area but organicness now catches up, you start to get a lot of balance, coherency, and decent organicness coupled with a high level of technical performance that leads to an overall pretty great experience. Starting to excel in fluid presentation of low level info, apparent texture, refined and coherent stage that are accurate and somewhat convincing, good dynamics, and impressive difference between the dacs themselves (can be pretty dang different at this point). Also starting to control tonal density and presentation quite well. Also your digital source really starts to play a role here in what you feed it with, so start to take note of that. A decent streamer or midrange ddc is worth a look.
The upper high end tier of dacs, from around 2.5k-5k. Examples include lampizator amber 3, aqua la voce s3, xi sagra, etc. Another solid step up although some of the midrange high end may compete in some aspects but not many, and it might not be immediate but will def reveal itself with longer listening. Overall technical performance and organicness take another bump, getting really into the range of refinement and capability packaged together, dacs now heavily differ from each other a fair bit (although the ones in the previous tier already did that pretty well). They present their capabilities with very good coherency, feel less strained in presentation, strong focus on intangibles with really getting into control and grip, very impressive texture, dynamics specifically micro, timbre, and spatial recreation in an organic way. Also having good tonal density control. When you get here you may notice the dacs more adapting to the source material playing when it comes to their signature and technical ability (ex might be stage adapting it’s size to the tracks). Digital source dependence increases here once again.
The very high end tier of dacs, from around 5-10k. Overall step up for sure, pretty immediate. Examples include bricasti m1, mojo mystique evo b4b or basic, weiss dac501, etc. So now you are getting a significant boost in realism overall, with an increase in technicality and a bigger boost in organicness leading to a sense of completeness and refinement, being also getting a sense of effortlessness. Really getting into smoothness and liquidity with still a ton of technical ability, texture for sure and tons of nuance, spatial recreation that is feeling more in the room or at the recording, timbre that feels very convincing, real command over the output. The quality of the dac is becoming very reliant on the quality of the source material and the quality of the digital input into the dac. Also feature wise, some of these dacs may have pretty decent streamers in them too depending on the dac or other interesting features that many not be something you see on other lower end dacs
The exclusive level of dacs, from around 10-20k. Examples include rockna wavedream signature bal, nagra classic dac, mola mola tambaqui, etc. Another fairly immediate jump in quality over the previous tier. This really kicks almost everything up a notch for the most part, and you get pretty massive differences between each dac, all going for different goals. Overall completeness is very impressive, and balance is sweet although they still typically favor some aspects over others. Nuance is through the roof, low level information is crazy but not in your face, texture super apparent, dynamics very capable. The dac really adapts to what it’s being feed with (both good and bad, super reliant on incoming digital signal and source material). Overall feeling of being there and realism really getting there and things start to get so good that it’s hard to pick out single aspects of a dac and not treat it as a whole as it’s so coherent
The summit level of dacs, from 20k+ (lazy and can’t think of any more tier names, there should be more but this is enough for the sake of this). Examples include totaldac d1-direct, aries cerat kassandra ii ref, lampizator gg2 discrete bal, etc. These are typically jaw drop moments on hearing them, fairly quickly. Not to say you can’t get that from some of the lower tiers, but these just hit you when you hear them right away and keep you that way the entire time. Generally technical level feels limitless, the dac feels so refined that it doesn’t feel like it’s there almost, the sound is crazy realistic most of the time with different flavors added in, really hard to describe easily. Digital input and sources make or break at this level