I could never quite put my hand (ear) on what the problem was. I just didn't want to listen to music, and when I did, I didn't want to keep hearing more.
I tried it by itself and with my rDAC. The sound was best with the rDAC and optical output, but still not great.
I had been using an old TEAC VRDS transport with the rDAC and I was very happy.
I picked up a floor model Rega Apollo-R for $650 and I am very happy with it, both using its own DAC and the external one.
I am not great at audiophile-speak, so the only term that I can use is listener fatigue, that ill defined loss of desire to hear more, rather than disc after disc.