It took my Schiit Modius coming in to finally appreciate the THX 887 properly after trying better gear. The answer is disappointing as it pairs best with sigma delta DACs that are slightly warm… which seems to be in line with a theory I have on the THX and maybe why it measures well. I have a feeling the THX amps sound harsh because they don’t handle transients very well, which you may get from ladder DACs and ultra high resolving DACs.
The harshness to me might be due to small transients of digital music that sigma delta dacs smooth out in the lower tiers. With that said… I can see how my THX 887 may not scale up to the Benchmark THX amp. There is still a slight colorization of my THX 887 which means either you’re a fan or you’re not + it makes your signal chain a little more picky.