effect of output shorted to ground?

[ta240]

I have an Audioquest Evergreen interconnect cable (yeah, I know, but I bought it years ago) that I had on one system for awhile but one channel would cut out intermittently. I put up with it for awhile and after checking every other component and connection I finally replaced the cable but the problem didn't entirely go away so I figured it must be the DAC. A few years later I grabbed the same cable from my box of cables to hook up a different amp into my main system and after using it for a bit I had a channel start crackling and then cut out completely. I moved things around and the channel would work and then cut out again. Then I remembered the past use of the same cable and threw it away and switched to a different cable. As I continued listening the same channel that was cutting out would pop lightly every 30 seconds to a minute. It wouldn't cut out just make a light pop sound. I swapped the left and right on the new interconnect and the pop followed so it was definitely at or before the DAC in the chain.

Did the shorting in the cable damage the DAC? Actually, two DACs.