I think we have never had it so good, it is possible to buy excellent DACs at a remarkably low price point that are audibly transparent. Audio digital - analogue conversion is a mature technology, CDs are over thirty years old and DACs fitted to CD players in the 1990's already offered excellent performance. I have an old Sony CD player from the late 90's that still sounds great, but I paid about £600 in late 90's pounds and today I have a similarly transparent DAC in my mobile phone (also Sony funnily enough). Even in terms of amplifiers, I mainly use headphones now and although the headphone output of my mobile phone is a bit anaemic (thanks to Euro regs to protect our ears) it can drive my headphones to a decent volume and within that limit is pretty transparent. If you'd told people not that long ago we would be able to carry an entire music library around on a mobile phone in CD equivalent FLAC quality and that the phone would provide equivalent sound quality to a hifi CD player and headphone stage (albeit to a limited volume) people would've said you were nuts. And there is a whole world of very affordable, excellent performing kit from manufacturers like Topping, SMSL etc as well as no shortage of great gear from more established players and professional suppliers. None of this is to say that equipment doesn't continue to improve in term of measurement but there is a different between what can be measured and what can be discerned. Happy days!!
