https://www.stereophile.com/content/playback-designs-mps-5-sacdcd-player-manufacturers-comment
This has been discussed before, but it seems appropriate to provide a brief reminder of why the traditional noise measurements for a DSD-based DAC can be confusing or misleading. I have provided a link to the Manufacturer’s Comment from the Stereophile review of a Playback Designs SACD player (with built-in DAC) because the comments are really helpful in understanding why it can be hard to perfectly correlate measurements with listening impressions.
Given the comments from Jonathan Tinn and Andreas Koch of Playback Designs, it should be obvious why it is not possible to provide any simple traditional measurements that relate noise levels (especially ultrasonic noise) to sound quality in DSD-based DACs. Demanding that PSA produce these measurements seems rather silly. It’s not that measurements don’t matter at all - it’s just that traditional measurements may not tell a complete and accurate story about how to make a DAC sound great.