benchmark and apogee

Shadorne:

That is a very good question. People compare to sound at the concert as reference point. It doesn't work well for popular music or jazz (bad acoustics). Symphony orchestra might be the reference if you can afford good seats.

Getting back to Benchmark - It was compared to few other DACs in the studio by playing instrument (guitar) and comparing recorded sound played thru DAC to direct sound. Benchmark scored the highest.

Kijanki,

That does not surprise me. It does sound pretty clean or neutral compared to many things that are quite clearly colored (often in a nice way but colored nevertheless) but that is just my impression - I made no tests like you have done.

Shadorne - I haven't done any tests - it was review I read.
What is good for me might (like neutrality) be bad for somebody else. Good example of this might be sound of the guitar that is often described by presence, projection, separation, sustain and tone. Most of people care for tone. Classical guitarist needs presence, sustain and separation while flamenco guy doesn't care about presence, hates sustain but needs huge projection. There is no instrument that would satisfy everybody.