From what I understand, the issue of the sound is a matter of settings. But I believe it is also a matter of implementing the amplifier stage as well as the analog-digital stage. And all this in how you cooperate for the best fidelity result, right? And here the question is more than the two units, does it have a better implementation over the specific stages?
That is true, but It is more complicated than that, making it impossible to give a Y/N to such talks. The fact is, there are many different ways in terms of implementation, and may or may not result in significantly different overall results. The difference implementation schemes often have pros and cons, and the designer/implementer's goal could be to optimize cost, efficiency, output voltage, current, power, reliability, longevity, distortions, noise, and many other metrics to suit different users/applications. There are no magical formula there, but the important point is, of all the metrics, and those not mentioned, "fidelity" is probably among the easiest to tell, because bench measurements will tell you which product has the best results verifiable by bench tests, using highly precise instruments such as those made by Audio precision, used by Audioholics, ASR and Stereophile.
So, if you are keen on "fidelity" as measured by those reviewers, just go with the bench test results, and ignore what forum members such as some of us on Audioholics may tell you about their subjective views on "fidelity", "sound quality" etc. For example, many will rule out class D amps and favor class AB, and some would only go with class A, and on preamp, dac, some will tell you the so called dual differential implementations from input through output is the best for accuracy, whereas others would counter that by citing the top ranking ones based on most measurable metrics are often implemented without using the so called truly/fully differential schemes.
Who are you going to believe then? ymmv, for me I would go with specs and measurements that are immune to Placebo and other known bias that we human all possess and are influenced by a little too easily.
