Unforgiving DAC or add Tube Preamp??

Audio Note Kits. DAC 3.1. I am surprised AN has not been mentioned. Its crazy how good it sounds. I speak from experience as I have one and have gone through several 2500.00 Dig DAC's. I had it paired to a Bryston pre until I got the AN 3M line pre. The DAC was the biggest improvement made to my system. Even more than the AN tube pre.

I think the high sampling or low sampling is not the issue in other words bits so bits,in my own opinion the best digital format is 16bit 44.1khz cd standard but in other hand digital lossless w high bits high sampling is better sound because is lossless no high compress information or moving parts, compare 1cd album vs 1 digital lossless album and you can hear the results.

Try a LAB12 DAC1 SE. Upgrade it with a NOS 6922 tube (Telefunken, Philips or Siemens). 

My advice to you would be to use more than one dac. I’m sure the Benchmark is superb for good recordings. And there are a few out there. With Tidal it’s rather easy to find them. Use another dac, maybe one with tubes in the output stage, for all the trash recordings we also like to listen to. And, music is fatiguing (at louder levels). Why try to remove that? Why would you want a fine recording to sound mellow?

Using a good eq. you could also take down the 3-4 khz freq. a little. I believe the harshness is often found there.

Any thoughts on the Moon 280D with MiND2 streamer? I’m about to make an investment. 

Just discovered Colter Wall "Songs of the plains". Absolute reference acoustical recording. Deep double bass. 3D. 2018. Wouldn’t sound harsh on anything. They didn’t do recordings like this in the past.... Perfect for the Benchmark :-)