People can train themselves to perceive various sounds in the presence of non-aural cues. It can even survive blind testing in cases where the cues are not visual. So it is perfectly plausible that enthusiasts of expensive DACs perceive better soundstage and punchier bass with different transports.

What is not plausible is that people can identify from listening alone differences in sounds that are below audibility thresholds. A conventional DAC receiving the same 1s and 0s from two different transports is going to create the same sound field. Our enthusiast of expensive DACs may genuinely perceive different sounds from the two transports but they won’t be able to correctly identify from listening alone which is which.

If the expensive DAC enthusiast knows that one or the other is being played the difference in perceived sound may even persist in a blind test with the brain locking onto one or the other sound. It is more usual for an enthusiast that has trained themselves to hear different sound in response to different non-aural cues to become confused but this is not always the case.

Here is an example of audiophile Mike Lavigne reporting his experience in a blind test after training himself to hear differences between two cables. It is very rare an audiophile is prepared to do something like this publicly so hats off to him.