I've tried different headphones while trying out different dacs, so I can't make any solid comparisons. All I can say is that I found it to be my favorite stand alone dac so far. All that I've tried should be in my profile. I wish I had my current receiver at the same time to compare, because I love the way this sounds too. I don't like trying to go into a lot of detail because I feel like this entire hobby is purely subjective. Just about every item I've read reviews on has at least a few people saying exactly opposite things, so I expect some may not agree with my opinions. To me, it just sounded 'right'. With all that I tried before it, some had a bass boost, some had extra detail but were sibilant, some sounded hollow, some were warm, some cold, etc. This was the only one that I couldn't find anything wrong with at all (sound wise). Nothing seemed emphasized. I felt like what was going in was what was coming out without any alteration. I was surprised that my mp3s didn't sound like garbage like they did with other dacs, but I listened to mostly flac files. Since it's been a while since I listened to it, I don't think I can go into any more detail than that. I don't know how helpful it is.
