The sound quality from DACs - is it all the same?

I highly doubt people buy their audio gear to statistically prove (satisfy) the mass population.

Well, that's not the point I was making, but they should use statistical information to filter their own decision-making process. And studies like Toole and Olive's show the likelihood of what the typical human prefers. I'm first going to assume I'm a typical human before I assume I'm an atypical one and flounder around testing atypical equipment. Likewise, with electronic equipment I'd rather start from a neutral base and determine what adjustments to neutral I prefer. That's why humans use common baselines for just about everything.

@jssmith 

Unless they can statistically prove over a larger population that it sounds better, it don't mean jack. The ultimate approach in audio so far has been Floyd and Olive's at Harman, where they can predict with 0.86 correlation coefficient which speaker listeners will prefer in blind listening tests. And when bass extension is similar, that number goes up to 0.996. Believing anything someone or some company subjectively says without going through this kind of statistical scrutiny is akin to believing in get-rich-quick schemes. Unfortunately, the human psyche is built to want to believe in these kinds of schemes.

The exploitation of human frailty is often the marketers goal.

On the other hand folks like Floyd Toole, Sean Olive and more recently Amir Majidimehr at ASR have done some good work in ushering in a new era of measurement based "statistical scrutiny" for which an increasing number of peoplebseem to be grateful.

@cd318, the difficult part is getting the people who know how to implement audio reproduction to accept that "perfect" does not mean "good sound", and the people who don't implement audio (but think they do) to accept the other side actually knows what they are doing.

My background is in solid state physics and material sciences. If you need someone to build a battery for you from scratch I am your guy. My background and tools I have access to could allow me to completely simulate an acoustic absorber, but I still hired an acoustic engineer to design my listening room. I could literally build a transistor from scratch, but I trusted the engineers who designed my electronics know what they are doing since that is not what I specialize in. I am an innate skeptic, but my experience and others demonstrated knowledge leads me to believe those who can demonstrate real expertise as opposed to those who claim it by virtue of simply using something.

I dont use statistic for my room tuning....😁😊 and for sure i dont sell anything...But statistic is only a tool, not a proof of anything...

Unless they can statistically prove over a larger population that it sounds better, it don't mean jack. 

@cd318, the difficult part is getting the people who know how to implement audio reproduction to accept that "perfect" does not mean "good sound", and the people who don't implement audio (but think they do) to accept the other side actually knows what they are doing.

Precisely.... It is important to listen others and discuss...