Sgt. Ear Ache
Major Contributor
I want to add something to this conversation, from what I've read time to time here it cannot be held as evidence but it is *easy* at times to scroll the forum and read comments from members that were often either SINAD-biased or price-biased.
#1 example from my head is the continuous comparison of that $9 apple dongle to many, many review threads. I feel annoyed every time I see a comment that goes like "wow this product measures [average/good/great] but at X price why should I get it over [cheapest product that offers score the highest SINAD possible]". This is not an exaggeration, some folks do talk like that while ignoring completely the product class, different usability, features and other factors...
#2 is when I feel like people overcriticize a product and sometimes the people that would use/buy it. Even if their comments are factually correct they can be harsh and unnecessarily rude at times and that's something that can definitely make an impression. There could be more (or not) but that's all I remember right now
Of course a vocal and flawed minority does not AND should not reflect nor represent the entire community, but to some people that might be enough to gather an impression that this website heavily favors SINAD (even though it's not that), specifically when it is already above the audible threshold so I don't think we can just say that it's always the reader's fault for not reading enough or so. I say this because I did read and lurk here for a considerable amount of time and that's exactly why I can say this after thinking about both sides (ASR members & outsiders).
WRT #1, you should be cautious with that generalization because most of the time when I see that it's in response to a thread where a person asks if they should replace their current dac with some new dac to improve the SQ of their system. Folks will respond with "you probably wouldn't even hear a difference between an Apple dongle and that new dac so likely not necessary". In other words, it's usually people giving good advice which will save someone from spending money they don't need to spend. I don't see many occurrences of people recommending Apple dongles over other good and reasonably priced dacs the way you suggest.
It would be great to see some examples of some of these situations where people are supposedly valuing SINAD over all else because I'd be willing to bet they are actually quite rare...and probably come down to situations where it's been established that there's no functional difference and no real price difference (or the lower SINAD device is actually MORE costly) between two items at which point, sure...why not use SINAD as the deciding factor.
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