Burr Brown DAC are the best in the world, many Stereophiles swear by them. I cannot tell you why they sound soo much better, but my buddies $1200 Cd player has them, and it makes CDs sound amazing. Most CD players that are released today have a varying 1-bit DAC, which sounds OK, but you can pick up why they are bad on highs, because they get muddy. My buddies Pioneer CD player has two 16 bit Burr brown DACs, one for each channel. And we did a side by side comparison with his, and a much cheaper Kenwood CD player, and the difference was significant. I a little bit of a Stereophile myself,and I WANT HIS CD PLAYER, but I am stuck with my H/K Cd player for now. So is short, yes what you got may not sound as good, and yes it is because it does not have BB DACs.