Are "vintage" DAC's worthwhile, or is this a tech that does not age well

@jasonbourne52:

" All competently-designed DACs will sound alike. This applies to ones from 20+ years ago to the present"

Huh ? When I was shopping for DACs, I did home-demos of DACs from PS Audio, Heed, Metrum, COS and Aqua and was shocked by the dramatic differences in resolution and tonality. These differences appeared to have little to do with price (Units ranged in price from 1K to 6K).

I'm scratching my head as to how you could possibly arrive at such a conclusion. Or is it your contention that one must spend over 6K to get a "Competently designed" DAC?  

"Acoustic is the sleeping princess in Audio, but all people are looking for one of the working 7 dwarves...."

Very well said, mahgister!

"All competently-designed DACs will sound alike"".

DACS come in many sonic flavors. . . some may not hear the differences,
though.