That's the nature of the beast I am afraid. Objective tests will lead to a stream of ooooh! and aaaah! for every bit or dB of improvement here and there even if they don't actually matter. And those oooohs and aaaahs are by essence subjective. But aren't hard numbers still better and more useful than pure subjective reviews? Amir usually notes that even if the results aren't record-breaking they are likely to be audibly transparent anyway. What the crowd makes of them is another story.
I tend to agree that, in my environment and in my own assisted blind tests, I am totally unable to make the distinction between a 110db and a 99db DAC for example (and going lower probably wouldn't even matter day to day). That, in itself, is useful information: I know that I don't need to pay more for transparency but could for looks, features or maybe even bragging rights
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As far as amplifiers are concerned, this is more nuanced imho. Amplifiers may measure decently and still be unable to drive a given load. sinad is just one piece of the puzzle. That's why
@Blumlein 88 and
@restorer-john would love more realistic tests I believe. When I compared one of my AVR to the Hypex amps on the Focal, it was clear the AVR (measuring decently according to that polish site) was barely able to drive the things. The problem wasn't a sinad problem, more a current delivery one imho (but I am not that well equipped to measure and test that assumption). The issue is so obvious that the plan to move the Focal to the home theater has been shelved at the moment.