As a professional audio tech, I am somewhat resigned to paying the extra cash for that extra 1% of performance. So by all means spend the money if you have it lying around collecting dust, but being cheated is another matter entirely. If I’m spending the extra money for better performance, I better get what I am paying for. In the case of this product, one does not get improved performance relative to less expensive products. As for the clock. . . That is just robbery.The Element X being $2999 is even more impressive when compared against things like this that offer the same functionality at over double the price. One could buy two Element-x and a monoprice thx amp for especially demanding headphones with that money. Or one element-x and a Benchmark AHB2 amplifier with $500 left over to pay for two years of Tidal HiFi streaming.