Well indicates the forum is getting noticed. Whether it continues to convince or not there is the chance.
This! Discussion is the key...realizing that people come to the table with a variety of backgrounds, biases, etc.
When viewed from this perspective, then your challenge (imo) becomes 'what message do we want to drive to those that will listen...and will we listen to them?'
My sense is that many on this forum are engaged in this manner. Some...not so much; being dismissive objectivists much like their dismissive subjectivist counterparts on other sites. I view these 'absolutists' as two ends of the bell curve that, to me, provide no added value to the discussion...outliers -- so to speak.
ASR MISSION? (genuine question and some anecdotal thoughts that relate to it)
If the mission is just to provide data, that's great. But I'd vote for providing useful information...that can be leveraged by open-minded people to help them make a 'well-informed' buying decision.
For me, and some others I'd suspect, this useful information would be the measurements/comparisons
plus a discussion that informs the reader about what these measurement differences likely mean to them when they are listening.
BTW, there's nothing wrong with saying...'although DAC X measures better/worse than DAC Y and costs 3x as much, we'd expect that the listener would not hear much/if any difference'. As a bonus, if you're looking to move the needle with the open-minded subjectivists, a quick listen/writeup comparing the measured DACs that states no difference was heard, etc. would probably engage a few of them.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (Satisficer vs Maximizer?)
I'd wager that the majority of consumer buying decisions are rarely, if ever, strictly based on pure price/performance ratios.
I'm definitely a Satisficer, so I use measurements and subjective reviews to
help (not dictate) my buying decision. I enjoy the information gathering process and use it to varying degrees depending on the purchase. However, I don't agonize over decisions, feel that I must get the absolute/best value, or have buyer's remorse to speak of.
TBH, the closest thing to buyer's remorse I've had in the audio realm was the introduction of the Mimby...which made me think that I paid an extra $350 for my Multibit experiment. That said, if I had the options available at the time, I'd probably still have bought the Mimby for aesthetics and upgradeability.
A couple purchasing decisions of mine...
My purchasing thought process for the Bimby was far more convoluted than I believe that many on this forum would guess/use.
Why I bought a Bimby...
- I own several high-impedance cans from Senn and Beyer
- After reading about OTL amps, thought one would be worth exploring/buying for these cans
- Looked at low-end to mid-level (<=$400) OTL amps
- Narrowed it down to a few and read more reviews.
- Compared companies...where were they located, how did their existing customers say they've been treated, etc.
- Chose Schiit because I liked their story, they were USA based, customer reviews were positive, and I've owned Sumo amps in the past and enjoyed them.
What's this got to do with a Bimby?
- Well...since I feel that most DACs do a good job these days (from a listener's perspective), the Bifrost gets the nod because it's a 'matching' counterpart to the Valhalla 2.
- Gave serious thought to getting the Bifrost (Delta-Sigma)...after all, it 'matched'
and it was $200 cheaper!
- However, I'd read enough about Multibit DACs and knew of Mike's reputation at Theta, so for $200 more gave Multibit a shot
In contrast, why'd I buy my Sony UDA-1?
- Mostly impulse buy really
- Was wanting to get a piece of gear that would serve as a decent DAC/HP & Speaker Amp combo
- Hadn't really invested much effort in evaluating gear
- Woot ran a sale for these units at $199 NIB.
- Done deal...the box has served its purpose very well; even with its
Schiity DS dac!
So what?! Well, if I'm in the minority because I buy things using a combination of subjective/objective/pricing factors and the rest of the world buys primarily on price/performance ratios, then it makes sense to just publish data and prices.
On the other hand, if the majority of consumers buy gear due to more varied decision processes, then providing them with a combination of measurement data and some interpretation of it relative to the user's listening experience will position this forum as a place that is a trusted advisor having a balanced approach.