I am snooping alll the time. What the cartridge does with a record is similar to what the DAC does with the digital signal it recieves. What has schocked me is how important the USB cable is. I have 5 DACs near my writing position. With a particular cable, one of them sounds nearly identical to another one using a different cable, If I switch the cables they are very different. The match between a cable and a DAC is more like romance than science! You don't have to spend a fortune on a cable. My best cable (on my two best DACs, not all of them) cost only $149 from Zavfino in Canada. The improvement in "Transparency" and "depth" is immediately obvious. If you buy a used cable you save $$ and don't have to break it in.
Is the DAC the digital equivalent of a cartridge.
I'm thoroughly convinced that the closest thing to the source of the music/sound is most important component. I'm an analog vinyl guy, but am looking into digital, and was just wondering if DACs have the same influence on the sound because it's as close to the source as the cartridge is.