Good measuring DACs vs.

Do people understand the brain and aesthetic preference so well that they can capture these in various acoustic measurements and then have those measurements standardized for deployment in the audio industry?

Of course not, but since numbers are "serious" they can be seriously misused.

Some numbers mean something related to aesthetic taste.

But aesthetic taste in audio is as complex a phenomenon as "marriage" or "friendship" is. So why would we assume it can be reduced and parlayed, thus? Rhetorical question.

@koestner 1+

Some manufacturers intentionally add harmonic distortion to amplifiers because many audiophiles like it. Not to mention that most audiophiles are trying to judge equipment through speaker/rooms that have insane amounts of distortion. It is like trying to evaluate a photograph through a foggy window. Even with the very best systems one has to be careful.  Then there are the effects of price and appearance on audiophile psychology, expectation bias and so forth.  Put in a properly blinded situation I doubt any of us could reliably identify any of these DACs. What any piece of audio electronics sounds like, with the exception of amplifiers, is more a matter of psychology than anything else. 

If measurements are meaningless, an audiophile's opinion in regards to sound quality is worthless...except mine.

Because it's all subjective. I'm sure that as many people that love the Mola Mola & Benchmark there are equal amount of people (or more) that don't care for it. Doesn't make either person right or wrong. 

You could almost drop it into 2 different classes of people. It would be oversimplifying it but we have those that like the utmost transparency and others that prefer the sound of a little distortion. Not noise generated by power supplies or internals but distortion in the form of harmonics..which a little bit of certain order harmonics don't sound like distortion in the way many might think. Still distortion though. 

I do feel that this is where measurements can be useful. Actually I'm of the belief that all data and measurements are useful.. it also keeps manufacturers honest or helps us know which one's make BS claims. Trust your ears as they say, but also don't discredit measurements and data..they can tell you a lot about a product. You don't have to be of the mindset that perfect measurements mean perfect sound. Well to some people it does but it's all subjective at that point, so whatever. 

Personally I like a dac with upwards of 20bits of dynamic range or "state-of-the-art measured performance". Clean and transparent. I can add some flavor or distortion somewhere else down the signal line. 

Do you buy a painting based on the purity of the oils used??