Imho, far too much is made of the objective performance as being the final determination in how good an audio component’s sound is.
In reality, there’s far more involved in tailoring the sound of an audio component (ie. Voicing) then just the raw numbers of a test bench.
Moreover, choosing audio gear that complements one’s system to create a synergy is far more important than spending a small fortune on one component which will then only serve to expose the flaws in the rest of the system.
As for the topic of this thread regarding digital to analogue converters being a scam, that is simply not the case, because all dacs do not sound the same. Dac’s like other audio components benefit by good engineering as well as the use of high quality components. Logic should indicate based on the aforesaid, that a well implemented dac using quality components, will sound better than a poorly engineered dac using lesser components.
Even two dacs using the same components will sound different depending on how the components are engineered into each dac.