You are positing a theory that the better-sounding one’s USB source, the less improvement one is likely to hear converting USB to I2S ahead of the DS. That theory seems reasonable to me and I accept it as a given for purposes of this discussion. Where we part company is the notion that converting USB to I2S via the Matrix can make the DS sound way worse than running USB direct to the DS. A few posts up, you wrote:
When I challenged your characterization as essentially an outlier, you modified your description of what you heard when you added the Matrix to your playback chain:
So if the $379 Matrix sending USB>I2S to the DS can sound as good as a modified Aurender W20SE ($22,000+) sounds sending USB to the DS directly, I guess those Matrix owners among us with lesser USB sources can rest easy at night (as I would venture to guess that most of us do not have $180,000 to spend on a power cable).