That was my first impression when I bought Benchmark DAC. It sounded so clean - almost like some instruments were missing. I guess we got used to sound with a bit of distortion and/or jitter added noise that makes music sound more dynamic (like distorted guitar sounds more dynamic than clean Jazz guitar at the same loudness). We learned to expect two different sounds, clean one at th concert and slightly less clean at home, where added "dynamics" might compensate for recording compression. I took me a while to get used to Benchmark's sound, but now I would never go back. Of course even Benchmark's John Siau says that there is no right or wrong here.