Speaker placement and adjusting gain / crossover settings on your sub are great advice and the first place to start. Comments on the design difference between DAC’s are spot on, R2R will have a very different sound signature vs those with newer chip designs. R2R’s sound signature is talked up as being much more analogue, tube, vinyl sounding. It emphasizes the mids, lows and tends to be more gentle on the highs. It’s often described as more “musical, warmer” but less analytic, “Hifi” sounding. Synergy is key, if your system is already on the warmer side, your speakers roll off a bit on top and or are known to highlight the mids, the 15 might be too much of a good thing. The fact you hear a noticeable difference is a great thing system wise, if you don’t have a system set up that could highlight differences in a DAC wouldn’t be all that noticeable. Unsure of your equipment is room ready, if it is, sign up for the free trial, you can use their EQ software to tailor the sound, curve. That would give you a really good understanding of what you might be hearing. You can drop the mods / lows and juice up the highs, if that doesn’t provide a different sonic signature than something else is going on. The Sony is no slouch and it’s likely designed / engineered to deliver something closer to how the track was originally recorded, that might be what you prefer over the overall sound signature of R2R DAC’s.
