Good read: why comparing specifications is pointless

@amir_asr I could care less if you are here.

Free country.

You do you.

Do you have someone write your reviews? 

You keep saying you don’t want me here, then throw out fighting words like what I am responding to. Or arguments that can be trivially shown to be wrong.

Wow. He has no idea as to my thinking, my beliefs. Nor my system. He demands to be believed. His way is the truth, the only way.

Well, there are other paths. That provide immense pleasure, way beyond the measurement discipline.

This entire line of thought makes zero sense.

Why feel bad for selling his gear?

Why did you buy it knowing Topping was better according to you?

ow do you know they can't afford it?  I recently reviewed a bunch of Chord gear from a member.  Cost?  Around $30K.  He bought a Topping DAC to replace it all and said it sounded just as good.  He was so nice about it that felt guilty to sell the Chord gear to someone else.  I suspect money is not nearly as valuable to him as his ethics there.

I personally replaced my $6,000 Mark Levinson DAC (and older multibit one), with a Topping as well.  I have more capabilities and have not lost a bit of fidelity.  I have however, lost prestige given how small it looks compared the Levinson DAC.

Half of this debate is actually user preferences versus accuracy.  'Musical' to me may mean elevated bass relative the male vocal frequencies.  To the next person it may mean elevated mid range and lower high and low frequencies (i.e., 'highlighting the vocals').  One way to achieve user musical preferences is by years of mixing/ matching components, which may or may not get you where you want to be before you go bankrupt.  Another way is to assemble a system that is as accurate as possible, and then dial in variances in the frequency response.  Of course the room has to be dealt with as well.