Appreciate the post. Is there evidence of showing the ability to discern smaller differences in music listening?
IIRC (I'll see if I can find the source... I'm sure it was linked on here somewhere)
@Floyd Toole in the early Harman days (or maybe
even before, and maybe it was
Sean Olive... I have such horrible memory
) not only showed that increase in accuracy - fast switch vs. slow - but also showed a higher accuracy with tone/noise vs. musical content. Wish I could just go grab it but it's likely in the reference section on here. EDIT - I think the two linked AES papers covered it, and I'm pretty sure it's in Dr. Toole's book, but I can't find the link to the video at the moment which was the easiest (and free) source.
I sort of agree with you on the "drawer full of DACs" bit - though not completely. I don't hear a difference at all - sighted or otherwise - but there are a number of feature differences or aesthetic values which cause me to like more than a single device. While having a component-sized DAC/Processor is a preference in my rack, having something I could grab and go with was also a desire (though not a "need") so I picked up a DX7 Pro for that purpose. I don't see much difference in that as a digital-predominant listener from someone with 3 turntables or TT's with multiple tonearms, etc. Sure the music is important, or why bother in the first place, but sometimes gear fetishism is fun as well.
Plus with most cheaper speakers, DACs, AVRs, CD players, etc. -the resale value is so minimal that it's easy to just write off the sunk cost and save it for a rainy day. My wife is similar with shoes and vacuum cleaners. Hundreds of the first and at least 7-8 of the second are in our house... none (to me at least) are all that different from the others - but she's happy, and it's not like they're all Jimmy Choo's (thankfully). Plus that makes my closet of gear less of a "marital disruption".