Personally, I let the reviewers do the heavy lifting. I read all of the reviews I could find on the DAC I was interested in and paid attention to the associated equipment they were using. I was interested in the Auralic Vega nad purchased it based on the reviews of several seasoned audio/digital audio reviewers and decided to purchase the DAC based on what their observations were. I believe I made an excellent choice. I live in Cleveland and when I purchased the Vega, there were not many dealers that were well versed (or equipped) with digital audio gear. Just my 2 cents.
Dan
Dan