Alex, this mirrors what my audio acquaintances (one of whom was using a top of the line Offramp) have discovered. What are the reasons for this?
Agear, In my experience, the biggest enemy of computer audio is the multiple switching power supplies used inside.
In my opinion, any audio equipment using switching power lacks the naturalness, refinement and richness of pure analog in comparison. The two most pronounced artifacts of gear using swathing power is the reduced low octave bass and also strained/metallic/glared upper mids and highs (high piano notes hurt my ears).
As mentioned on these threads earlier, we designed and build a computer that runs on all-linear power (with external linear power supply) that sounds very close to my digital transport. Yesterday I installed a linear power on my USB to PCIe card that made another change in the right direction. Next will be to run the memory on linear power as well, leaving just the processor core on switching.
Such computer is indeed very very good sounding with a hair-splitting difference compared to my DTR. However, we are talking about something quite expensive, so why not just spin your favorite discs. :-)
Best wishes,
Alex Peychev
APL Hi-Fi