I understand the OP was speaking in general terms. And in general terms, DAC technology/digital/streaming sound quality has greatly advanced over the past 15 years or so. There’s now a ton of great sounding DACs out there on the market to choose from, at all price points. The good news is, nowadays, you don’t have to spend a ton of money on a DAC to achieve near reference quality sound quality. With all the wonderful advances in technology over the past 10-15 years in high end audio, especially on the digital side of the aisle, life’s gotten pretty doggone good for the modern audiophile, simply because, generally, you can get a higher level of sound quality for less money than you could in the past. Happy listening.
Is there any such thing as a bad sounding DAC these days?
I think the problem of DAC for quality audio has been pretty much universally solved. Not to say all DACs are equal, they aren’t, but do any that really matter these days not sound “good”?