Is there any such thing as a bad sounding DAC these days?

Charts like that are invaluable to help understand what we hear in music better and use tools like DSP to adjust the sound to personal preference.

Agree starting with a high quality neutral sounding DAC then tweak to one’s heart content from there is a very practical way to go.

FFT is a mathematical transformation from time to frequency domain. Our ears respond to frequencies over time. The details of how they do that is a whole different story.  chervokas  seems to have a good handle on it.

My primary current setup is Roon->Cambridge Audio mxn10 streamer/DAC analog out-> Schitt Freya balanced XLR out -> Class D Audio Premium GaN 6.5 Balanced 2-Channel Amplifier 200W RMS into 8 OHM -> KEF ls 50 meta + powered sub or Ohm Walsh F5 series 3.

I listen to the KEFs nearfield in a small 12X12 room and the Ohms non-nearfield in a much larger L shaped room.

I couldn’t ask for anything more regarding sound quality and performance in either listening scenario. The nearfield setup with the KEFs in particular allows one to really listen in detail into the recording. The detail, soundstage and imaging, and dynamics at all levels is just incredibly good on the grand scale of things. Tone overall is very neutral, which is what I like. Every nuance seems to be delivered...things I never noticed before even with old familiar recordings. Different remastered releases of the same content sound clearly different as well. From listening experience, I can say with confidence the new GanFET amp in particular is a big contributor, but the DAC is certainly holding up its part very well indeed.

I may play with the DAC part a bit just for fun to see what differences I might hear.

Open for suggestions!

I use one of these portable dongle dac/amps with earphones and gotta say it sounds absolute top notch.

https://www.tempotec.net/products/sonata-bhd-pro-usb-dac?srsltid=AfmBOoq7cfgu5t0PI7n5yMOvbZ6MKKB24Z7nvVeCb6IsMXIuvwQ_Wb9U

Also have an older Chord Mojo that cost a lot more and has a “warmer” sound.

At home currently using a couple Cambridge Audio streamers with integrated DAC and have an older mhdt Constantine NOS DAC that is very “musical”. I like them all.

Have heard many others all the way up to DCS, a company that has always helped to set the benchmark for top notch DACs.