I have the Mark I Octave. It has burned in for about 2 months and needs that long for the character to fully stabilize. After ~15 years of trying to get music from CDs, I have finally found what I was looking for with this DAC. Satellite radio and CDs are quite enjoyable. I prefer this DAC to Schiit Gungnir (more detailed, but too aggressive which made us feel tense), Channel Islands Audio VDA-2 (very nice, but not as dynamic. I now feel that delta-sigma DACs are a fraud to which I fell victim for a very long time. I think that people who are trying...

Music sounds great with these. They are a little heavy, but I knew that when I bought them. What I did not know was that they make great ear warmers. This is good for winter, but may not be so good in summer. I'm quite happy with them. They don't seem to really need a headphone amp to sound good which is another plus.  They seem to have low listening fatigue. The sound may be on the warm side, but I like that.  I recently tried them with my Bifrost and Parasound pre-amp as 'phone amp and they sound even better than with my Sony NWZE475BLK