Never. Quality components cost money. You can hear the difference with every pair of high quality resistors that you substitute. A simple volume control can be improved all the way to $1k parts cost. I know - I did it.
Quality costs. Period.
When Will the DAC Singularity Be Reached?
A humorous title, but wondering if those more in the know have an opinion on either: i) examples today where inexpensive DACs (say under $2500) are comparable or superior to expensive (say over $10K) DACs or ii) can we anticipate that within a relatively few number of years that inexpensive DACs will basically achieve the sound quality of today's expensive DACs? Thanks.