[JFreak]

It all comes down to gain staging. TDM as a 48bit fixed-point architecture was very strict, because once you went over you immediately heard it and could fix it on the spot. AAX on the other hand is 64bit floating-point and going over is much more subtle -- it means you can smear your sound without noticing and it all adds up. Eventually your sound sucks if your gain staging is wrong.

Sonnox on the other hand -- pls correct me if I am wrong -- has implemented their plugins to be "TDM compatible". Which means they clip the signal internally if you go over. IOW using Sonnox plugins your gain staging is likely better than using other AAX plugins and when your gain staging is good your plugins sound like they should. Not better, but they sound worse if you go over and don't care.