Hi
While (some of) those notions have been trivialized, overused and beat to death by the High-End Audio community they do have some roots in real, measurable perceptions. Stereo images is now thought as 2 channels by most. The term wasn’t meant to be. Stereo is Greek for solid as in a solid, in a volume ... by extension and stretching a bit a
space . A good number of early "stereo" recordings were in 3 channels... 3 channels were difficult to fit on the most popular medium of the times , the LP, they moved to 2-channels and to these days when we mean stereo, we see 2-channels , more channels and we call it surround ... which in fact is stereo
... 2-channels does produce an impression of a stage in which music is reproduced, the soundstage and some speakers do acquit themselves better than others all things being equal. The way this soundstage is presented is perceived as forward, laidback, etc .. terms to suggest an aural impression.
A DAC perforce has an analog stage .. It is possible to design an analog stage that is not transparent ... in fact, this seems to be the modus operandi of most High End Audio manufacturers these days with components that deviates from linearity/transparency, what with amplifiers with 3% of THD and purposefully high harmonic content that are deemed by the press "musical", "organic", "mellow", etc ... Some DACs are fitted with tubes for the purpose of deviating from linearity to have that sound full of distortion that is said to have all the attributes above.
From there the extension and salesmanship starts ... The reviews aka marketing materials assigns all kind of attributes to any DAC that their authors encounters .. It doesn't matter that the attributes disappear under blind conditions: The reader is influenced, the potential sales underway... of course, said reader/audiophiles is not satisfied and move on to (always), a more expensive DAC with different "attributes"… Under blind conditions, they sound the same but after a review and a good view, it helpts that the items under consideration espouse a certain aesthetics, glows or shines in a certain way and ...
What many have come to understand thanks to this website in a good part is: Past a certain level of competency .. say a SINAD of 90 db.. a flat Frequency Response within plus of minus 0.5 dB from 20 to 20 KHz and THD of -95 dB or less, the capacity to produce 2 V on down a 1 KOhms
load .. DACs sound the same .. Be they in an iconoclastic box such as the Chord Dave
box or bare bone to the point of indecency like the Khadas Tone Board
...
However non intuitive this has come to "sound" pun intended, once you remove the visual clues and biases .. Even other electronics sound the same ...
For the enthusiast it is confusing at first, liberating when she/he fully embraces the approach: Good electronics are transparent.. DAC, amps. preamp are transparent ... Once they fit some criteria in term of linearity (This will be define later by other or perhaps I).... they sound the same , it hurts (It shouldn't) but that is what Truth does
.
Focus on transducers and the room... That is where the sound is... That is what produces the sound. I doesn't have to cost so much .. On the DAC side start thinking at what a $9 dongle (yeah! I like the term) can do as compared to a $15,000 (!!!?? WTF) component of, surprisingly, lesser competence.
Peace
Enjoy the music.