Everyone's reference will be different than yours. The system and room you hear a component in provides a different starting point and as @mlsstl points out, it comes down to your ears and preferences. Most shops are happy to let you try / demo a piece in your rig. If you don't have a local shop most manufacturers have demo programs. Even if you have to drop some dough on return shipping it is well worth it to find the piece that works best in your system.
Neutral Dac?
I’m curious to see people’s opinions on what they believe is the most uncolored dac? Every dac I’ve tried seems to be a flavor that deviates from neutrality in some way (smooths things over, too bright, too soft on transients, lacks bass etc...). Is there a dac that people believe gets all the fundamentals correct with leaving very little sonic footprint? What is the cost threshold needed to achieve it? I’m surprised at my own findings recently but really curious if anyone else has been searching for a fundamentally uncolored dac and what they’ve found.
I realize the most obvious answer is "the dac with impeccable measurements" but I have also found some of them to sound unnatural (dry/bright).