Agreed Drew. The one in my Samsung phone is surprisingly good!
I can hear heads exploding.
Direct wired into the preamp playing Spotify it sounds great. As good or better than any of 5 different lower end dacs up to 600$ that I’ve tried. Including SMSL and Toppings and the onboard dacs of a Technics DVD-A and an Onkyo 7030.
They do sound different though. For instance the Onkyo is warm and a little dull, and I have a cheapo Fosi Audio DAC-05 that’s open and brighter. The Wiim Mini is indeed bad but through the DAC-05 it sounds good.
I am curious about the sound of higher end ones up to maybe $1500. Can’t see spending more than that as I am unconvinced that any digital will sound as good as my vinyl. But Spotify is a wonderful thing for discovery and I tend to listen to new music and then get bored of it all and move on. My old records don’t interest me much anymore. Spotify fills that need.
Yes DACs sound different. I think the resolution of the speakers is important. My Maggie LRS are very transparent and present.