Thanks much for the quick reply.
have set up my system using both DSD outputs because, according to Ted, you can connect both with no problem in most circumstances. In 2015, he wrote about connecting a headphones to the DS:
“Get a headphone amp, connect it’s analog inputs to the DS’s analog outputs (either balanced or unbalanced), connect the headphones to the headphone amp, connect the amp to the other DS analog outputs OR, if the headphone amp has an analog output, you probably will be fine connecting your amp to the headphone amp’s analog outputs. Things will work and you won’t hurt anything by using both of the DS’s analog outputs at the same time: The warning about using both of the DS’s analog outputs at the same time is that you might (or might not) get some noise in the outputs from unbalancing the balanced output a little and you might (or might not) get a slightly raised or lowered top end if the cables are too long. For most systems these effects are not noticeable nor significant.”https://forum.psaudio.com/t/connecting-headphones-to-the-directstream-dac/2719
And in the same thread, James says that when asked they tell people to try it, it won’t hurt and problems should be rare (due to impedance mismatches).
That’s what led me try the current set-up. But now I’d like to try a balanced connection all the way through, hence my question about running it through the SG pre amp.