I understand the rating is harsh. The sound rating is 4 to 4.5 but there is so much else this DAP is sold to do and it falls short in those areas. I really wanted a device that would stream and do it well. If it is a jack of all trades and their own site advertises it as such it needs to deliver on the other items also. I only bought the Opus#2 on a prayer that they will do as promise and if they don't I will have another awesome sounding DAP. I was really more frustrated with the i5 and it's niggles because of it's high potential compare to other DAP's in the sound department.
Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
I think that the 3* rating doesn't match with your other parts of the review. Sound quality is #1 in importance, and this delivers that. Every piece of hardware has interface niggles, I complained too, but your niggles overpower the sound quality and make this DAP look worse than the average rating of the HiFiMan MegaMini, which is a far inferior DAP.