I don't want to beat a dead horse but I'm bugged.

@realworldaudio I will interpret your response to indicate my post was correct.

@russ69  thank you. Some seem pretty worked up here.  I cannot speak for Amir and he does come across to me as unjustifiably arrogant, but I expect most who use measurements in audio use them more for relative comparisons than absolutes. It's why I tried the IEMs though I didn't know if I would be happy. I do expect there is more truth to DAC measurements than many audiophiles want to accept, but human interpretation of say a tube amp is also part of the science so to ignore that is not "audio science" either. There needs to be more acceptance and less animosity on both sides.

Just for entertainment purposes, here are two opinions of measurements with different conclusions.  

John Atkinson: Rogue Audio's Sphinx offers excellent measured performance with little sign of the usual compromises made in class-D designs. 

As a line-level integrated amplifier and headphone amplifier, the Sphinx V3 continues the high standard set by the original. 

And From Amir at ASR: Perfect marketing, poor engineering. Story of high-end audio.

Needless to say, I can NOT recommend the Rogue Audio Sphinx V3.

The best is when A.S.R. jukes the stats on a product. A.S.R. gets called out on juking the stats. A.S.R.then ignores getting called out for juking said stats. For example, instead of measuring an item with a 2 volt input signal, fairly common, they throw a 14 volt signal at it. Good stuff! The devil is in the details. Also the Chinese brands “always” seem to be the best of the best on that site.

Measurements are the first thing.

But listening for yourself is the final thing.