My idea with pangloss was to question the thought that a "perfect DAC" would be too revealing of the underlying flaws of CD format. IME the idea that there are ruthlessly revealing components is generally misconceived. Any such observation about a component more likely reveals a problem in the component than it does flaws inherent in RBCD.
Also, measured distortion is only one among many criteria that determine sonics, whether in loudspeakers or in CDPs.
As the price of good digital gear has come down, some opinions are returning to the early days of RBCD, in which conventional wisdom was that there were few if any audible differences between CDPs. I agree that there have been improvements, but there is still a fairly wide gap between budget and upmarket CDPs. At local audio club meetings it never ceases to surprise me how much effort is put into systems building in all areas except for the digital source. You can hear the difference.
