I don't understand why one would need and/or rely on an analogy for any aspect of audio performance. What any given change in component would do to the sound is so specific to the particular components being compared and the nature of the system and the personal taste and priority of the listener as to render any such generalization by way of analogy utterly meaningless.
Most DACs, even quite low budget ones, do their task reasonably well so the differences between them tend to be somewhat subtle as compared with the difference between speakers which are so widely different in design approaches, interactions with their environment, etc. To me, speaker choice, by far, affects the sound system the most. I generally find the choice of amplifier to be the next most significant in terms of differences in sound. I hear substantial differences between most low-powered tube amps and high powered tube or solid state amps. My own subjective judgment is that differences in amp types and specific amps tend to make at least as big a difference as between digital vs. analogue--I can be quite happy with both analogue and digital sources, I am less inclined to be happy with the wrong choice of amp. I can live with almost any choice of decent DAC, almost any choice of turntable, and tonearm. Cartridges vary substantially enough that particular choice does matter a lot. I find cables to be surprisingly different in such fundamental characteristic as tonal balance that choices made have substantial impact (e.g., try substituting anything Nordost with anything Audio Note).