WHF isn't looking over and beyond what's out there, these are essentially products the manufacturers send across for review, it's a kind of Symbiosis relationship, WHF gets material for their publication and the manufacturer gets the thumbs up.
You can't really say this is defacto where all others are benchmarked, no doubt these are good products or maybe even great but you need to put it into perspective, WHF is just a puddle but outside it's a ******** ocean!
Just to provide an analogy, WHF top choice Naim NSS 333 costs £8,499 but looks like it's has been put together in a garage. If I had this kind of money to spend on a streamer, I'll save more than half of it and go for the Eversolo DMP-A10 for £3,599 and the rest, I'll book a holiday for me and my missus in Cuba. 🙂
Though the cost of the Naim NSS 333 seems palry compared to the Aurender N20 which according to other main stream reviews rank it very highly, possibly the King of Streamer/DACs but are you tempted to part £14k+ to get the best?
To sum up, this isn't a criticism of WHF per se, it does a lot of positive things, like providing a platform where people can exchange ideas and learn things. I put more credence to peoples own experiences with regard to products they've actually used over a course of time. This has more depth than reviewing a product one off but have you lived with it?
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram