I wish I could say that it was that easy for me. If that were the case,
I'd have the Benchmark hooked up and sold the BorderPatrol. Turns out,
my preferences don't align to perfect measurement... but when you
really think about it, I think most people don't. Not a perfect
analogy, but I bet everyone here also knows someone who (some what
annoyingly) way overuses Instagram filters in their photography. Is
that a more accurate representation of the picture? Definitely not.
Does it give them some joy / describe a mood / something else emotional
the original did not? Likely.
DAC's aren't at all like Speakers, or even Power Amps when it comes to adding flavor to sound systems. 20 years ago, when I was young and impressionable I might have agreed with you, but when the goal is converting 0's and 1's to an analog waveform, measured performance really should be king, imo. If you want to add a sonic signature that you find pleasing to your system I feel like the equipment to do that with are primarily speakers, followed by amps.
Sources, which DAC's are, now that the majority of people are using computer based front end's, should be as clean as possible, and SINAD is one of the best ways to measure that.
