A few things passed thru my mind as I read the review, and some have been addressed in previous posts. The one thing that I picked up on right away at first listen is the tremendous increase in dynamic range, ambient information, and music presentation over what I had with only a stepped attenuator between dac and amp. I listen mostly to big classical pieces and what I described is not hard to pick up immediately. I think this also comes out in spades with any acoustic recording. However with close miked music, such as what most people listen to, there is not such a dramatic difference, though it is still there.
But a review is more than just a listener's perceptions. And I think the review did a good job of describing what the unit actually is and does. I felt the summary was a little understated, as if transparency is not a desired goal in music reproduction. Just go to any music concert of any kind in any venue and the music will always sound transparent.
Then again, TAS is in the business of promoting expensive audio equipment where almost anything costing under $10k is thought of as a budget/entry level unit. So to give any praise at all to a unit costing barely over $1k, and not deride it as "good for the money", or some other condescending term, is really quite something.
