As far as "brightness" goes, the 950 might be a little on the bright side, but not overly so. And I am running Adcom amps, and NHT speakers. Believe me, if this unit were "harsh", this combo would certainly show it! My previous Parasound had good DAC's, but the 950 actually sounds better, at least on my Directv toslink. My CD player sounds better thru it's analog bypass mode, but it is an Adcom GDC600, which has outstanding DAC's (Adcom may build mediocre pre/pro's, but they have there D/A conversion down pat).
The knob/buttons dont bother me at all, and I use them more than most, since it sits right next to this computer, so I often adjust volume, sources etc, from the front panel.
Overall, this $900 pre/pro outperforms the Parasound setup I had previously, which I paid $2500 for (including tuner)4 yrs ago. That is probably also why the remote interface works fine for me, the Parasound used one remote to control 2 components, and was confusing at best.
Overall, a great product, especially for the price.