I know. Measurements are one thing. How equipment sounds and what it is able to do vs something else is another. Even if someone could give an impression, it could still be different from another person's POV due to equipment, taste, preferences, etc. Still, opinions can be useful.
I get it, but I try to temper opinions with relevant data. I have seen and read reviews of Schiit multibit DACs, as well as the D70s. Although I've seen glowing words for both, I hew closer to the measurements. As the old saying goes, opinions are like sphincters - everyone has one.
A DAC is really just a machine that converts digital electrical signals to analog electrical signals. That's not magic; it's science and engineering. Those things should be fully measurable, whereas likability can be highly subjective. We have been measuring audio DACs for over 40 years now, so there is a huge body of relevant study regarding which measurements matter most to human hearing.
With that being said, the subjective differences I heard between my 16 year-old Bryston DAC, the Modi and the Topping D70s when playing CDs were subtle at best and not concluded with a blind test. I don't use headphones much, so the differences might be more audible using them. I ended up deciding to pay 6.5 times more than the Modi for what subjectively might be a 5%-10% better experience.
The options to use remote volume control, MQA, Bluetooth and balanced output helped, but were not decisive. It was largely just an insurance that I don't have to worry about the age or quality of my main system DAC - again, highly subjective. Objectively, the D70s performs better but the differences are at the threshold of human hearing, even under lab conditions. I scoff when I hear reviewers say that differences between good measuring DACs "blew them away".
I would not buy a second one to displace the Modi 3 in my office system; the diminishing returns are too great for that usage. Psychology says that people are more likely to retain an object they own than acquire that same object when they do not own it, so that likely figures into why I'm keeping it, too. I'm not 100% certain that I would be able to tell the differences in a blind test, but in sighted listening in my main system, I perceived enough differences to make me happy with the purchase.
Even objectivists need to be aware of their cognitive biases!
