IMO as you get 'more' from any HP or high end speaker there is a price, and I am not talking cost. If we hear more, reveal more, get closer to what is on the recording or the attempted reproduction of what is on the recording, we hit more buffers and it can be, simply another annoyance to overcome. In my Stax journey, I found such things a distraction, annoying on some material, but overall something kept me interested and kept me using the Stax gear on a regular basis.
So all the 'problems' or shall I say weaknesses in the original Lambda series, the Lambda Pro, then the LNS. I liked the LNS the best at that point. But kept going into the 007 MK2 (dull and slow) to 009s (fast and revealing) and then another 007A 2015. Amonst all of this typical Stax journey so many have made, I moved amps from various Stax units to a KGSShv, (and ordered and cancelled the BHSE twice), then the KGSShv Carbon. Then amongst all that chaos, I moved DACs from various units to a range of Audio Note DACs till I got the DAC 5, which is a super smooth tubed NOS type DAC.
Finally, heaven, really a sound I can't fault in any way, everything sounds right to me. It gives me a wow moment every time I put them on, and I can listen at volume for hours with no fatigue or 'getting bored', track swopping.
In my mind it is all down to synergy. At Can-Jam I heard other phones (Audeze, Focal) with a great sound that really was balanced and real sounding, not hyper detailed (false) or digital (as in nothing like real music). But at that show and in some cases, on the more expensive systems the sound was way off where I would want to be or enjoy long term, just plain off.
This to me shows we bolt stuff together and hope we hit the jackpot. Stuff made by a variety of manufactures and listen to it, see if that beats the last one we heard. It is not just the HP, the amp or the DAC, it is how they all go together, the sum of the parts. And as the speaker, or in our case the HP gets better, the upstream gear matters even more, and if it isn't right, it can sound horrendous TBH. What bugs me is why one manufacturer can't make a top HP AND amp and DAC, that really blows us away. Maybe that has happened with the HE-1? I heard it in a poor demo situation at Can-Jam, it showed promise, but didn't shine then. And the price of that system leaves pretty much everyone out of the picture.
But this is not a negative point, it is the journey we seem to go on. But one we need to get to an end point,. more or less. Then forget the gear and talk about the music instead.
Anyway, my rambling for today.