Kind of hypocritical for Tomshardware to say that blah blah dB at blah blah Hz is not critical, and when really comparing graphics cards that are 5fps difference (which most people won't be able to tell the difference) and claiming that one is "better" than the other. It's like turning 2x FSAA to 4x FSAA and claiming there's a difference when in general, it's only captured with screen shots and magnified.In honesty, when it comes to audio, it's not always how you "hear" the audio. There are many kinds of audio distortion, and most of them are not HEARD. They are felt. It may not be apparent at first, but a good sounding audio setup will not give you listening fatigue at high volumes. And like anything, some audio headphones, amps, speakers, etc, will give you different sound signatures, treble spikes, bass heavy, mids recession, blah blah blah. Anyhoo, when it comes down to it, it's the end-user who is the judge. If you think you can hear the difference, then it's worth every penny. It's like some musicians claim there is a difference in using a maple neck vs a rosewood neck on a guitar, etc etc.