rikkipuu struck a nerve with me and perhaps put his finger on what bothered me about the Varese review. It was given many more pages than any other review I can remember. So many pages for perhaps a handful of readers who could consider purchasing the Varese. Not a mention that the price was more than any reviews I've read in their pages except for huge speakers.
It had a kind of cringy feeling to me. There didn't seem to be any normal human responses. Not even the oft-ending line that the reviewer would buy the equipment if he could afford it. I think it did strike me as an add and that was partly why I was offended.
Basically, I have some passing interest in very expensive equipment, but I'd rather read a review of something I could possibly buy some day. I also believe that reviewers I read twenty or thirty years ago talked about equipment a good portion of the audiophile community might be able to purchase. Now, these same reviewers go to their garage and pull out a pair of $100,000 amps, etc. Where have they gotten all this money? Certainly not writing for Stereophile or Absolute Sound.
Although the question of $ is subjective, and everybody is in a different bracket, for me $250,000 for a digital front end seems egregious. Especially when I read in forums how the difference between expensive and inexpensive DACs had diminished. Just my humble reaction.