I can understand you are confused when reading through all this reviews telling about the supposedly enormous sound differences of DAC's, amplifiers, even cables etc.
These people do not do level matched, blind, immediate A/B test, on some items like cables real A/B-ing simply isn't possible.
I don't say these "reviewers" ly intentionally, they're just fooling themselves by "hearing" what their prejustice wants them to hear.
I'm highend recording studio owner and engineer, and audio developer for decades now.
I did lots and lots of blind A/B tests on ADCs-DACs, amps and other audio equipment:
There are very tiny, audible differences with DAC's.
But - in a properly done, level matched blind A/B test they were hard to detect at the age of 16bit converters, even harder today as technologie has advanced further.
Same applies to most amplifiers, where little differences are usually caused by different impedance matching with electro-acoustic transducers like headphones.
Speakers and headphones is where you really have huge differences, no two sound the same.
You got your answer from my colleagues and me:
Don't let anybody tell you there are audible sound differences.
Choose what fits best to your demands and your wallet.