Thank you. I'm really learning a lot here.
And yet. And yet...!
Part of me still wants to believe that there is a magic price:quality point or sweet spot that is 'just right' for me.
I know the two are in no way comparable, but imagine we are talking about wine and not DACs for a moment.
I might say: "I find some 5 EUR wines are a bit rough, 15 EUR wines are pretty nice. But I can't taste the difference between a 50 EUR wine and a 500 EUR wine".
So in that case, and for me alone, my 'sweet spot' would be somewhere between 15 and 50 EUR.
The weakness with this analogy is that, in the DAC world, or at least on this forum, most people are saying that all the wine tastes exactly the same.
I am honestly having a hard time getting my head around that concept.
I very much like your analysis of the spurious reasons that people spend more; very nice. Thanks a lot!
Once you understand the basic concept, it becomes much easier.
You have a source as a starting point, file, CD, stream, vinyl and so on.
That is your 100%, you cannot improve on that, and neither can any manufacturer. If someone claims that, that is the first step to snake oil.
The goal would be to get that 100% as unadulterated and unchanged as possible to your ears. That will not work!
The goal is to get as much of the 100% unadulterated and unchanged to your ears as possible, i.e. with the least possible loss.
And that is exactly why you need components that are as transparent as possible.
DACs have been extremely transparent and also very free of coloration for around 10 years.
If a DAC is not free of coloration and "sounds", that is either what the manufacturer wanted, or they have done something wrong. And if you don't really want that, i.e. a change to the original music material, you should stay away from it.
And these developments were, as is often the case, passed on from the best devices to the lowest price ranges. Even the cheap DAC chips achieve excellent measurements these days, and the AK4493 is already one of the best DAC chips on the market.
The good DACs today differ much more in terms of features, interfaces, display, functionality, appearance/feel, etc., than in any sound aspects.
Since I have already compared well over 30 DACs from the current Sinad list (Sinad over 100) here, I can tell you that your money is better invested everywhere, amplifier, speakers, music, etc., than in a more expensive DAC.