DACs are essentially a solved problem, the only crap DAC and headphone amp I have found on a device that actually sounds different than any other DAC was on a raspberry pi. Which to be fair they tell you straight up that the audio jack on the raspberry pi sucks. They probably found the one factory in china still bothering to manufacture subpar DACs and amps.

Otherwise every other single device with a headphone amp has sounded the same, especially when you factor in normal use of an eq to get your sound system/headphones to sound good. People that say you can tell the difference between audio DACs are letting the placebo effect convince them to support a crap, cottage industry that robs people of their money lol.

Now, there are DACs and headphone amps that can put out a LOT more power than other DACs and headphone amps. Yes if you buy headphones that take a lot of power to drive a normal DAC/amp might not be able to drive them but that is an entirely different question than "my DAC just sounds better than yours" snakeoil. Also... hard to drive headphones and speakers are relatively niche and rare. There are PLENTY of """""""audiophile"""""""""" headphones and speakers that are easy to drive.

I know that DAC is solved problem. But parent claims external "DA is better than anything that's ever been on a phone".