All I can say is that IMHE anytime an item is significantly superior from a purely sonic perspective I and the others I deal with seem to know it right away. I call it the wide eye sign. I just got it out of a friend who is taking the MiniDSP SHD off my hands when the DEQX arrives. I had to do something inexpensive when my TacT 2.2X died. I was already in line for the DEQX Pre 8. The Friend was interested in the MiniDSP as he can't turn up his system too loud because it is too bright and sibilant. He appreciates my system which never seems to be strained. I took the SHD over to his house and calibrated the system. I immediately got the wide eye sign when I kicked it in. He only had to audition it for 10 seconds. The MiniDSP is a bit grainy in my system. I think it is the inexpensive DACs. In his system it did fine. Benchmark Media Systems uses an SHD Studio in their demonstration system but with their own very excellent DACs and they say it sounds great. It is not the model of digital flexibility, but for $1400 who can complain?
On the other hand most systems including mine have specific problems. Once the reason for the problem is found one has to come up with a fix. This is primarily the way my system has evolved over 60 years. Sometimes I am my own worse enemy by taking unnecessary diversions which turned into dead ends. The Apogee Divas were such a diversion. They sounded wonderful at first, but it did not take long for durability issues to creep in and the company rapidly got into trouble. I bailed out before they went under and returned to the ESL I should have never left. I have owned several turntables that turned out to be big mistakes.
