I've had this amp/dac since Wednesday of last week. I am on Firmware 1.01. No real issues for me.
I posted photos of the internals on another
site but here's one photo:
Images are blurry though, sorry about that. I dont want to take it apart but if there are very specific questions, and I have time, I can do it again.
I havent had any major issues with the unit. All my streaming/flac files work just fine. I use Coax with a CD transport and works great.
My initial impressions:
-Sound is extremely clean. It's lean sounding compared to other amps and dac/amps I have -- DX7, Liquid Spark, MCTH, P20, Schiit Magni 2, etc.
-I find it very detailed.
-DIRAC Sensasound adds a lot of height and depth to music. It works quite well on some songs and not so well on others. YMMV. When it works well, it works REALLY WELL. Some songs which emphasize bass and beats -- may not sound so well with it on since the DSP essentially stretches the soundstage and this kills some of the rich/full sound. Works great for acoustic/bluegrass stuff.
-Menus - it's a little cumbersome at first, but now that I'm used to it - its not too bad. There are definitely more menu presses than I'd like and I do miss the quick remote access of the DX7 sometimes.
-EQ - works well. Easy to use, just takes a little bit of time to scroll through since you can tailor it very precisely to what you want.
-Headphone Amp - Plenty of power for everything I've thrown at it from Planars to Dynamics. I dont have any super duper low sensitive stuff but it powered the HE560 and Audeze Sine quite well with plenty of headroom left (using balanced XLR)
-This is, in fact, a fully balanced amp/dac. Theres twin dacs and 4 amps on board.
-No XLR Output, kind of a bummer. You can either mod it per what Andrew mentioned in the monoprice site, or use XLR 4-Pin from the headphone out to your external amp.
Overall, I think this amp sounds cleaner and more detailed than the Topping DX7. It also has more features that I actually find quite useful and relevant. Its missing a remote that the DX7 has though, which would come in handy with the extensive menu items and presses required to do advance functions. I understand this is a measurements board, and I dont have any measurements to add.
This is all subjective listening, so take it for what it is.