Now a site known for its subjective reviews is using ASR as reference. .
https://audiobacon.net/2019/12/24/topping-d50s-dac-review/
This is required reading for anyone interested in High Fidelity reproduction. It is a given that most subjective reviews are drivel but this one is a good illustration of why these reviews must NEVER be used to make a decision.
from the "review":
The Pros ( At least he/she tried to be honest the darn thing will sound good, we all already knew that ....)
The Cons and I quote ((Mod, if this is not allowed please erase the post or notify me so that I can..)... Anyway this is the URL to this review
At this price point, it doesn’t matter if it measures well. Tradeoffs are a given.
followed by a list of cons about the unit being sterile, not cohesive and other things that I believe the neophyte audiophile needs to read to push these things out of his/her mind. Some sort of vaccination against subjective audio reviews influence. And take some basic blind test to solidify one
The price reference is endemic to High End Audio. The best units
need to cost a certain amount. This threshold varies with the forum intended market. Let's arbitrarily put it at U$10,000... Since this Topping is "only" $500 or so, it can't be that good...
Had it cost $20,000 and please don't laugh: Some manufacturers would take the same basic circuitry or even the Topping D90 as OEM and put it in a large CNC-cut shiny and heavy box, stuff in a linear Power Supply large enough to power a 200 wpc amplifier, with large electrolytic capacitors or better these days, multiple smaller electrolytic caps, use heavy gauge mu-metal shielding all around the LPS circuit. The XLR and RCA connectors would be some nom-du-jour audiophile fare (Furutech, WBT, etc) ... Some pointy feet, and ... BLAM!! $20,000!!! Same writer would found different adjectives to describe the same device. A few influencer or/and audio reviewers, will start using the "I-had-to-buy-the-review-unit" catch-phrase and you have a new audiophile star to be surpassed by the new 4-box Reference : A DAC , a Master Clock in a same size box, ,a Streamer following the same logic,finally another heavier box for the Linear Power Supply to provide "clean, noise-free" power to all those boxes ... Now you have a >$100,000 unit that plays with the big boys...
This is what ASR is fighting and with success.
Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate today. People!