Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC

I often like a lot what Amirm of audiosciencereview.com REJECTS in his tests 😄 It's happening again in spectacular fashion for the Pagoda! He'd throw it in the trash (and I'll buy it)

Gianluca

This hobby would suck if I didn’t trust my ears enough and to the point where I had to rely on measurements to tell me what’s good or not.  Sad.  Truly sad.  I look at measurements too, but Jeez. 

I don't see what beef people have with ASR or Amir. I think he's doing a great service for the community measuring all this gear.

If you like gear with crappy measurements, so be it. The conclusions / recommendations are his opinion so you're free to reject it.

Personally, I like to buy products that are well engineered *and* sound good. Usually if you have the former, then you've got a good chance for the latter.

I've had my Pagoda for about 3 years and out of curiosity I read the "review" and subsequent posts on ASR. What's fascinates me about Amir and ASR in general is the lack of actual listening to the product he's measuring. I know Amir took a hit for this a couple of years ago but it seems not much has changed in that regard. 13 pages of bashing a DAC none of them have heard nor will ever hear because of SINAD (it's the worst in ASR history!). OK, bad measurements according to Amir, but how does is sound? Apparently it doesn't matter and the acolytes are all over the forums trying to save us from ourselves yet again. Joy.

What's fascinates me about Amir and ASR in general is the lack of actual listening to the product he's measuring. 

BINGO!!!  In his world, measurements trump listening.  He can’t trust his own ears and let’s measurements dictate what must sound good.  Measurements are important, but they’re not everything.