Just questioning an answer that for many here is a given.
Why is it necessary to spend $20k on a DAC before one hears music that sounds like music? After all, it's just a box of electronics, with components, mostly solid state, and design input.
But if the proposition is correct then it underlines that the bad elephant in the small digital room is the DAC. The ongoing failure of digital to produce a sound analogous to music is because of the fundamentally insoluble engineering problems of obtaining accurate clock timings and eliminating dither. For some of us, converting analogue sound to digital and then back again is alchemy and thus unable to be effected perfectly. At the very least, surely it is unnecessary if we always start with analogue sound.
The questions are:
How have some of the expensive DACS improved on cheaper ones (as most acknowledge)?
Why has it cost so much money?
Are DAC problem issues truly insoluble?