Quite a few Bricasti M21 DACs for sale cheap

tvad

I prefer to compare components in my system because it offers a familiar baseline.

Agreed. It'll be the best option. But most cases ($10K dac?) it is hard to do. There are many videos of certain gears and listen to them to guess the sound. I've been doing that for a long time and my guess is correct almost always. Better than nothing for sure. Alex/WTA

Bricasti M21 DAC system vs. my system (modded Oppo BDP-95).

In below video, people's voice and the music sound are contrastic. 

My system  Alex/WTA

tvad

@mihorn, I am impressed at your ability to discern differences between DACs playing in two different rooms (one a hotel room), on two different systems apparently without any similar components between them, from YouTube videos.

In my experience, the source dictates a big portion of audio system's sound. In those 2 video comparison, one is playing $16k DAC and the other is using 15 years old modded Oppo BDP-95 ($1k retail 15 yrs ago ). The sound should be predictable regardless of the room.

Also, it is the house sound. An audio company system with their flagship gears is their house sound. 

Below is my old audio show videos in hotel rooms. Though my sound is more natural and realistic now. Alex/WTA

2021 audio show

video by Audiophile Junkie (YT id)