@mrinspire: Merry Christmas to you, too!
Nice review! I need to review the Esther Analog, as well. I think I will make it a New Year's present to SOUNDAWARE. There, I've set a deadline for myself, so I'd better stick to it!
One thing I'd take exception to is dismissing Low and Medium Gain. SOUNDAWARE advises users to use as high a volume setting as practical to make best use of their DAC programming. As an IEM user, I routinely use Low Gain to my advantage. With some of my lower sensitivity IEM, I'm even able to achieve 80-90 out of 100 volume.
In fact, one of the strengths of the Esther (and iBasso DAPs) is this L, M, H Gain philosophy, IMHO. It allows user of very sensitive, medium sensitive, and low sensitive gear to choose he best Gain Setting to fine tune volume. I really, really appreciate this.
I've actually had arguments before over 60 vs.120 volume steps for DAPs because I'm primarily an IEM user, and the other was a low-sensitivity headphone user. I strongly believe the L, M, H Gain approach is the best compromise to satisfy all user and applaud SOUNDAWARE for accommodating us. Good job
@soundaware!!!