Prices have gone up, but the budget gear has narrowed the gap somewhat IMO. With that being said, a lot of people have the impression that new digital gear trounces old digital gear. Not in my experience. There's far more to digital gear than DAC chips. Power supplies and output stages are critical IMO. Just because a DAC has an ESS Sabre chip (or any other flavor of the month chip) doesn't make it a great DAC. Wallwart power supplies and op amps can't compete with beefy torriodal power supplies and discrete class A outputs. If the Musical Fidelity V-DAC and the Bryston BDA-1 had the exact same chip, do you honestly think they'd sound similar? No chance.
I sound like a broken record (or skipping iPod!), but my 16 year old Theta Cobalt 307 easily beat several current budget DACs in my system. Good power supplies and output stages aren't cheap and they don't get beat by the latest and greatest fad.
I sound like a broken record (or skipping iPod!), but my 16 year old Theta Cobalt 307 easily beat several current budget DACs in my system. Good power supplies and output stages aren't cheap and they don't get beat by the latest and greatest fad.