Belated thanks to Marv for putting together this chart. This is very helpful for someone like me who doesn't get much opportunity to evaluate DACs in a controlled manner -- i.e., being able to switch out DACs while leaving rest of the chain the same. Marv's descriptions in the matrix can give me a chance at picking out gear that is likely to be a sound that I would expect to like based on personal preferneces, although there is, of course, no substitute for hearing yourself.

I envy all of you pyrates who can do this and pick up on differences and develop preferences. Over the last three years I have spent a decent amount of times at various audio shows, HF meetups and dealers.  What is difficult for me is that I can only evaluate the entire system. So, maybe I prefer say an LCD-3C on system A versus system B at some meet, and can even describe why in some fairly limited noob way, but I cannot tell what component is doing what and causing me to like A more than B.  If I loved something was it because of both the amp and DAC or just one or the other. Maybe cables. I just don't know how to figure that out. I would love to be able to swap out components but am rarely able to do that.  I suspect that I would be more attuned to amp differences than DAC differences based on my experiences with different CD players and streamers over the years, but again I really don't know.

So, given my lack of experience, I am wondering how dramatic the differences in the different DACs are likely to be to an admittedly inexperienced listener.  I get that to trained listeners the differences must be pretty significant hence the broad range on X and Y axis descriptions on the Chart of Awesomeness. But if compared to the differences in different  transducers is that difference nonetheless relatively small. I am just trying to get a sense of scale and not in any way diminish the differences or question what people can hear.  But, for example, would the difference between say the inexpensive but well respected Modi 2 versus the almost universally beloved summit-fi Yggy be greater than the difference than between say the HD600 and 650. And I mean in terms of audibility. In the sense of comparing where DACs stand on the spectrum among DACs, then presumably the Yggy stands much higher in terms of sonic qualities than the Modi, whereas most people put the HD600 and 650 more or less side by side at the same level in terms of overall sound quality, with people having different preferences for any number of personal reasons.  But putting aside which is better, as well as the fact that they share a strong family resemblance, the differences between the 600 and 650 are quite clear to me (and probably anyone who has compared them). Holding amp and DAC constant I would think the overall SQ differences between the 600 and 650 would be fairly static and I would expect to be able to tell the two apart fairly easily regardless of setup with everything staying the same. Now imagine we picked one of those cans, picked a good amp for it and then switched between the Modi 2 and the Yggy (again just picking those two for illustrative purposes only). Would the difference in SQ, even putting aside which is better for the moment, be comparable or even greater than when I switched between transducers in the earlier examples. Or are the differences more subtle, yet still very important.

I may not be articulating that well, but hopefully my gist comes across. The Chart of Awesomeness reflects very different sound signature qualities and I do not doubt those differences. I am just wondering if they are more or less dramatic than differences in different cans (at least to relatively inexperienced listeners like myself). I picked the HD600 and 650 because they are relatively similar.  Clearly, if you take very different cans like the HD-800 and the LCD-2, I cannot imagine that the most different DACs can be anywhere near as different as two di fferent types of headphones.

Another way of looking at this is can a really bad DAC (a number of which are called out in the CofA) in and of itself ruin an otherwise good setup. (I didn't ask the converse because I would be doubtful that even the best DAC could save a really poor headphone/amp match, but perhaps I am wrong).  Like, if I had a great HD600 with the EC Studio or something, could a crappy DAC completely ruin it or just undermine just how truly great it could otherwise be with something much better.

Apologies for the rambling nature but I am genuinely interested in people's thoughts on this.

I wonder how the PS Audio NuWave DAC would fair on the chart?

To me its relative but yeah tranducer>amp> dac.  However the difference between two shitty tranducer will be small. First meet I ever went to I a/b the LCD 2/3/he500 and to me the difference were so slight.  Later in the same meet I a/b the hd800/th900 out of the Hugo and was th900 all the way. Sooo relative to the set up

Put away my Yggy and listened to the Gungnir->ZDS-> HD 800. UGH ! Delta-sigma sucks. I cannot go there again...Funnily, there was an audible noise floor that was not present when the Yggy was on the chain.

Boy does Yggy -> ZDS -> HD800 ever sound like a beautiful rig!

Yup. What has been seen cannot be unseen. I'm done with DACs. Yggy and vinyl till a better Yggy comes.

Yeah, I'm the same way. D-S is rough. I'm getting a [redacted] for work and then I should be good.