The brighter sound of the stack may well have to do with the DAC. I resurrected my old SpitFire DAC and the sound difference was surprisingly different. The SpitFire had a distinctly darker and less resolving sound. Interestingly, when going from the SpitFire to the Ultra Micro DAC, I was more taken up with the increased resolution while at the time, feeling that the overall sound signature was very similar.
|