I don’t trust what I hear, why should I trust someone random’s hearing claims on the Internet? There’s someone else in another thread who claims he can hear differences between 320kbps mp3 and CD, when played on a tablet, should I believe in it? You need to back up your claims with proper listening tests to be taken seriously, that is unsighted and level matched. If you do them and can pick up the differences you either have golden ears or your DAC is indeed somehow broken. Nothing suggests these devices should sound as different as you describe, they are simple DACs taking bits to similar DAC chips and then to a couple of opamps. Measurements also suggest there shouldn’t be readily audible difference between the two.
I am well aware of the pixie dust factor. I never expect decent electronics to make much difference. But, as I've stated many times previously, there is nothing subtle about this. Additionally, I've given my system specs (nothing special but beats a tablet) and the fact that is non-subtle, and in the midrange, not some sub or infrasonic fairy dust. The substitution of DACs changes the system from fairly decent to something I'd walk away from at Walmart. Additionally, I've never made any golden-ears claim. Actually, I'm well into the old-ears range so they're probably more like lead, but they're the same ears I use on both DACs, from the same listening position. My only conclusion is that I got a defective one.
As far as not trusting what you hear. If you trust measurements over what you hear, that's pretty much in the same realm as folks who claim they hear major improvements from "breaking-in" $10K speaker cables, just the opposite side of the coin.
I have nothing more to add.
Bye.