For the sake of closing the loop on this thread, I wanted to report back that we ended up picking the Topping D90SE. In the end, the extra energy and emotion sounded better with the types of music we listen to most. It ends up being the best of all worlds - my brain is happy that it's a technically correct DAC (i.e. the measurements are nice), my ears are excited about the sound, and my wallet is pleasantly surprised at the unexpected savings over what I was expecting to spend. Perhaps I can best sum it up by saying it sounds an awful lot like a Meitner MA3, but with a zero (and more) missing from the price tag. Not quite as smooth on the top end as the Meitner, lacks the built-in streamer (that I don't need), and isn't anywhere near as flashy looking, but the sound really is shockingly similar.
And if, over time, I find something I don't like about this unit, it's frankly cheap enough to just move on and not worry about it.
