Marrying the best of hardware with a 129 dB DNR and 32-bit / 384 kHz playback from the hi-res ESS SABRE-class reference DAC and the very own Xamp fully Discrete Headphone Bi-amplifier, together with the critically-acclaimed Sound Blaster audio processing technology that has been refined and perfected over the last 3 decades, the AE-9 can be described with a single word - pristine. WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov