I know - I was reading descriptions of what 'clipping' should sound like, and it's what you described, which is not what I'm experiencing. I wouldn't think it would be a DAC issue, as it never did that when I was using it for my 2-channel system, but I don't know. I am not a very techy fellow and don't know how to monitor levels and if you're asking about if the DAC is 24 bit, all I know is that it's a 'ladder DAC' (same as R2R) and ran about $8K or so new.... I suppose I should try them with the Holo May (these are the only 2 DAC's I have around) and see if I get the same issue... Oh, and I'm running balanced from the DAC to the Oor and SE from the DAC to the Enleum - both outputs on the DAC are active at the same time.