How good are $2 DACs?

Some years ago I bought a little Pro-Ject DAC for listening to music from my PC via free Foobar to my hi-fi.
Cost $12 as I recall from a local auction house and sounded great, way better than just the PC sound card. I was really happy with it.
A friend who said it would be crap (because of blah blah blah and not least of all, price) but had not heard it came over to listen to my new Rega DAC. When I played him some music that he thought was going through the Rega which cost $600, he really enjoyed what he was hearing.

When I got up and turned the Rega off and the music was still playing it left him spluttering in disbelief but still unable to believe his own ears.I was never really enamored by the Rega and found it a bit shrill in a lot of instances. I thought the Pro-Ject handled poorer source quality with more aplomb.

I was, however, not prepared for the differences in quality between the Rega and the Denafrips Pontus that replaced it!Different topology I know but still a way better sound than I was prepared for, with all sources of all different quality.I think there was a bigger leap in SQ, the further up the price chain I went.

nonoise
And, it’s CD quality you’re hearing, which when done right, rivals high rez.

>>>>>And when done righter, beats the pants off hi res. 👖 Why settle?

This is why despite all the knocks against CDPs and their "inherent" flaws, I'm sticking with them. You can bring up a list of all that can go wrong with them and yet prove that any of it will happen in any given circumstance. And, it's CD quality you're hearing, which when done right, rivals high rez.

All the best,
Nonoise

Good case in point is the Bluesound Node 2i is difficult to beat.  I added a DAC and went back to listening to just the Bluesound.  Something to be said for MQA.  MQA just has a different level of presence. 

The point of the article wasn't that 2 dollar dacs are the greatest but it shows how far dac technology has come and when we listen in a blind test it's difficult to tell cheap from expensive. 

Interesting read. I read an article a few months ago about a blind test on streaming services at different levels of quality. Professional studio engineers were assembled since it was assumed their job was listening to music and determining its quality and they would be the best judges. They were unable to tell the difference in any of the services. The services were Pandora, Tidal and some very high end MQA providers. No discernible differences were heard. When they unblinded the test, well, it was a completely different result.

Good enough to play your TV over a $10 portable speaker if it doesn't have a headphone jack.

Interesting.  Thanks for sharing. 

Millercarbon: LOL!! I did not mean to post on this shill’s thread, but your comment cracked me up! We should not feed the troll though. Watch it, he is standing by in 3...2...1 go sunshine!

Why spend even $2? My DAC runs on the cloud. Okay technically its a virus running on your pc and phone. Depending on your OS you may also be paying me btc. I love digital.