I agree with others' impressions of the sound, *but*: Seems to me I hear the slightest "sizzle" in the upper midrange, and slightest "fuzz" in the lower midrange that was not there before. Switched to my IEMs just to be sure it wasn't in the speakers or amp.
By the way - it's not impossible my, ehm, cheap preamp is responsible and I'm just now getting audio response that will tickle the bug, or clarity sufficient to hear it. My computer I would consider less probable.
Right, so of course on further experimentation it turns out to be my computer under the XTweaks settings. The most critical one for me seems to be Cool When Idle. If that's set to off, no balanced load setting sounds quite correct, lower ones having too little liveliness and higher ones having too much sizzle, with no happy medium. Turning all the XTweaks off leaves things with the sound of -7, very nice but not up to -8. If Cool When Idle is on, then a Balanced Load setting of 70 sounds about right on the liveliness scale - things "swing" nicely - without having the unacceptable level of sizzle that occurs if Cool When Idle is off at that load setting. There is still just a very slightly perceptible edge, but since I can't seem to get rid of it entirely without turning off all the XTweaks and losing all the accompanying sonic benefits, this last little bit is acceptable to me right now.
With Cool When Idle on and Balanced Load at 70, the Stable Power setting doesn't make a huge difference, the Utilize Cores Always a bit more but still not a lot - both do sound slightly better when on, though, so that's where I have them.
