Krelldog, that’s awesome! Yeah, matching power cords after the basics for a clean AC supply are established, is an area to explore.
A Pass XP22 feeding a X250.8 is end state solution for most. Nelson’s UGS gain module in the preamp and amp are arguably the best. He secured $1M worth of Toshiba low noise jsk74/jsk170 complimentary JFET’s on factory last call over 10 years ago.
I bet at some point you’ll plug the DAC straight into the Amp as an experiment. Curious your views on the results someday.
Vkennedy link post to the modding the direct stream is good learning fodder. The basics and iterations are all there. Most are pretty easy DIY. I hired my Transformer solder replacement but everything else I did DiY and they reaped big dividends in listening enjoyment. We are a helpful group to the tanker’s and most are willing to try the tweaks and the cables. My listening experience and learning experience went up tenfold hanging around this forum.