I assume I may be DAC deaf except for those 1st generation CD Players/DACs which had lovely warm bass but no top end (yes, I am that old).  I know that sound from experience - I had a Marantz CD-54 and it seemed pretty decent until a few years later  I bought Sony CD and Mini Disc (ha!) separates. I also had an AMC CD transport+DAC two box combo (balanced XLR out on the DAC and all that bs...errr...cool stuff) and a Yamaha home theatre reciever with coax and optical in and out.  I realised I could daisy chain through the mini disc recorder and actually compare the outputs of the various playback components.  The DACs in the Sony devices were so much better than the much older Marantz and more contemporary AMCs that it was almost comical.  I kept the Sony and Yamaha stuff, sold the AMC kit, and the Marantz died on me before I could sell it.

I have experienced different sounding devices since then but am inclined to think the differences are either entirely or almost entirely due to analogue output stages and occasionally just horribly defective design and/or manufacture.  The biggest difference I experienced in a single piece of kit is in my iRiver H140 and H340 players.  The headphone outputs in each are hissy and while not terrible are also not great.  The line outs are actually very decent (the H140 also has TOSLINK out).  So there I have examples of the same very old DAC in a single device sounding a bit crappy or very, very acceptable, all depending on which output is used.  I can't say my ESS Sabre sounds any better than the almost prehistoric DACs in the iRivers or in the Yamaha HT receiver.

My expectation is that if the El-Cheapo Generic DAC I bought is competently assembled of reasonable quality (or just non defective) components then it will be fine.  My layman's reasoning is that this is just a very simple implementation of a couple of reference designs with no features added so unless there is defective component or manufacturing problem it should do the essential tasks of receiving the USB data, D/A conversion and output to Line Out just as well as anything else.

Anyway, probably I'll just get a huge ground loop hum and put it down to experience, and not for the first time hahahahahaha

At least you understand there is an analog output stage in a DAC. That's a lot more progress than some others will ever make.

Enjoy music on whatever you have. People laughing at you for using a $25 DAC probably care more about gear than music.

hello,

thank you!

If you don't hear the differences that are so significant to them then let them laugh.
Who cares if they are right or not.

My layman's reasoning is that this is just a very simple implementation of a couple of reference designs with no features added so unless there is defective component or manufacturing problem it should do the essential tasks of receiving the USB data, D/A conversion and output to Line Out just as well as anything else.

You may be right but, certainly in the case of digital to analog, it's not so much the basic schematics but the PCB design (ground plane layout, decoupling, used components) that may lead to the performance being above or below par and maybe even the hardwired or firmware determined chip settings based on the philosophy of the 'designer'.
Some of those decisions can be quite audible even in well executed blind tests.