Top tier reviewers

[Alrainbow]

Can anyone name some top tier reviewers in digital. I ask this as there are many who review audio but in truth a person who does reviews of let's say dacs needs to have a method to properly compare them.
An example is this.
Lets put dacs In 4 tiers
4 being most expensive and 1 cheapest
A level 4 has various complex ways to make it less sensitive to its source. Some even have a complete source inside or nas.
Isolation , hi tech psu , clocks and internal RE clockers
But even these are effected by sources very much less though.
Msb , dcs and others lead this

Tier 3
This is dacs that given an excellent source can approach the sound production of tier 4
But is more sensitive to a source. Now some like LAMPI has network inputs that help close the gap with lesser sources to tier 4

Tier 2
This is where bargains can be found and one wound be surprised how close some can be to tier 3
A great source is a must to achieve this level of performance though.

Tier 1
Dacs that no matter what is done don't rise To above there tier it's not that they are bad it's that they are lesser in performance
That is due to choices in design over all.

Now almost all of the above inprove if a good active preamp is used while some tier 4/3 have such preamps inside them. How much each one can be inproved would have to be tested case by case.

So now given that some agree even in partial with the above. How does one do reviews ?
Many years ago one reviewer boasted of using his offeamp and one used a AP-1 and pure power
My point is his reviews were very detailed but when I bought one of the reviewed products it was obvious that his view was not mine lol. Of course I did ask and did buy those products and then did get his results.
So who does such reviews and what Methods did they use.
It's easy to see from above almost any given review can be skewed.
I don't sell products nor have a dog in the reviewer world. I only Want to know who some are and what Methods they use
Thanks for any replies
Al D

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Al,

likely the Asian market, especially Hong Kong, would be where you might find the most concentrated usage of what you refer to Level 4 digital; and even shootouts between them. not sure they are on English speaking web sites. you do have to read around the propensity for hyperbole, and mostly these are end users, not reviewers per se.

recently i heard the $140k 7 box CH Precision digital at RMAF and then in Florida at Elliot's showroom, then went home to slum it with my modest $120k MSB Select II. but i'm not a reviewer, and these were not side by side or even in similar systems.

you do get Fremer and others on Absolute Sound messing from time to time with level 4 digital gear, but with minimal comparative comments. and these are mostly analog focused reviewers. glorified (and certainly well written and entertaining) infomercials as they are not wanting to (it's not in their best interests to) rock any boats.

look for data points and then do your own adding and subtracting.

 

[microstrip]

IMHO digital reviews are useless per se for comparative purposes, although we can learn a lot from good digital reviewers if we know their preferences and biases, something that takes time. We can then use this material in out listening. However we should be careful - good reviewers can create a strong positive bias in us ...

BTW, the reason I have hosted simultaneously three top DACs (DCS, Metronome, Kondo) was that I wanted to evaluate preamplifier/amplifier combos in fair conditions, not to evaluate the DACs!

 

[Alrainbow]

I thank you guys for honest replies and it's useful to me.
Mike never feel bad of what you have. some pride of ownership is for fools unless it comes to someone like you. One who prides but puts the massive effort into achieving top tier sound from these products. My whole setup aside from its digital is legacy from many years back. In fact in directly you helped me pick out my amps and I thank you for that.