You guys win....no doubt. Certainly measurements mean everything. So, why are you here on a subjective listening forum? eh? Why not just get a 1975 Pioneer receiver (certainly has low distortion numbers) and a pair of Advent speakers and be done with it. Why would you waste all your precious time trying to convince people that they cannot hear.......or that they cannot believe what they hear? Clearly you guys have a motive for being here. Certainly, you will not convince anyone that your are right......nor will I. The people who listen and decide by listening will keep doing it and the people who decide on what components to buy by specs will keep doing it. Long live us all. I am done this this game. Over and out........at least on this nonsense part of this thread.
By the way, the research paper you linked shows nothing. It is not even about .1 versus .00001 distortion static numbers.....which is what Objectivists worship. It is about adding distortion and clipping on purpose to see how it affects sound. Come on....you can do better than that.....well, actually not, because there are NO tests about different levels of static measured distortion and sound quality. If there were, then you guys would be quoted it all the time.
It will be interesting to see what Timing3435 thinks of the Topping amp versus the Voyager......$350 versus $3000 and better measurements versus tweaky listened to thang. I may buy a Topping myself to use as a back up amp, and of course, mod the crap out of it.
Happy listening.....and happy measuring. It is all good.