Sabai, I have read all those reviews previously.
You are taking one or two lines out of context. You need to read an entire review to get a sense of whether a reviewer REALLY thinks a product is 'thar best evar' or whether they are going through the motions. It's a subjective thing, and I know enough of the politics to see the praise was well tempered.
To put this in context, I'm not saying the DS is not a fantastic sounding DAC, its perhaps just not the price to performance breakthrough it was claimed to be, just a great DAC for 6k. The fact that DAC's only just above its price bracket are competing and beating is proof enough.
You are taking one or two lines out of context. You need to read an entire review to get a sense of whether a reviewer REALLY thinks a product is 'thar best evar' or whether they are going through the motions. It's a subjective thing, and I know enough of the politics to see the praise was well tempered.
To put this in context, I'm not saying the DS is not a fantastic sounding DAC, its perhaps just not the price to performance breakthrough it was claimed to be, just a great DAC for 6k. The fact that DAC's only just above its price bracket are competing and beating is proof enough.