Well it seems that Topping choose a not so ideal DAC chip, as you said, but still managed to get an ideal rating in the review. Imagine if they'd choose a better DAC chip. The contest is not about best engineering given a not ideal chip, it's about the product Topping (not ESS) wants to sell.
what does what you said have anything to do with my point? i never said the contest is about engineering. im completely fine with you, or anyone else for that matter, not rating this product highly or not agreeing with amir's assessment, as long as you based your opinion on facts, not made-up nonsense. different opinion can be formed due to different points of view, preference, needs, etc. you can say you dislike this product due to the filter choice, dac chip choice all you want, i can understand that just like i can also understand the reasoning of amir's assessment (in this case, the key being inaudible, amir's recommendation was never about higher number but audibly transparent or not, back in the days sinad around 110 is about the best it could get, those device still got highest recommendation due to being almost audibly transparent, other example being some device may not have flawless jitter performance but it is inaudible enough, he wouldn't dismiss them from getting his highest recommendation just because of that, same here, all but 1 flaw & it's inaudible. i see no inconsistency, even if there is, not a problem, people can change, mood can change, with that, viewpoint changes too. the data is consistent, all that matters. you can decide how you rate it based on that, no need to make baseless claim in addition), but if your opinion is baseless, like saying things such as gaming measurements, that topping deliberately choose this filter to somehow cover up bad engineering, or 'gain sinad performance' if you prefer that, when there isn't any to gain, & that's why you don't like it? then not only does your opinion offer no value, it is outright harmful, because it is based on false assumption & misleads people into not being able to form their own opinion based on all the facts. those are the ones i was referring to, not you... uh... nvm, just checked your post record, you did exactly what i mentioned, posting 3 of such comment previously on this thread, repeatedly. you're one of those i explicitly refers to. in this case i regret typing this reply as im done with you already after my previous post, nothing more to say to you. amir put it best, you don't have common sense. maybe try solving a problem properly in real life for once, it doesn't have to be big, just try doing it properly, then you can come back & decide whether or not you want to continue this conversation.