People do some bashing indeed when expensive products like this get reviewed, especially when they don't offer anything that can't be had for much less. Doing some psychological self-therapy, I have found that personally the reason sometimes I feel like doing some bashing myself is because not so long ago, these kind of expensive products were hold (by HI-FI related media) to be the only way to reach audio nirvana, and those that couldn't afford them were made (actually doing it to our self because we didn't know better) to feel that we are missing out and that we couldn't get that fidelity offered by these products.Really, the Chord bashing going on here lately is getting rather out of hand. The measurements are the measurements, but the amount of people regurgitating things or exaggerating other people’s experiences they’ve read is quite astonishing.
Turn outs though that that's not the case for many of these products, sound-wise. Of course if you want the best there is you still have to pay, quality doesn't come cheap, but at least now we have some solid ground to make informed decision to get the best deal for our budget, whatever that may be.