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?? Thats what I said . . .

No particular order necessary.

The int-60 is an integrated, so no need for the serene. The xa30.8 is a class a amp with tons on headroom. I'd do the xa30.8.

@bbosler -- @AudioPhil is the one and only person associated with Audiophile Optimizer. Personally, I've always had very quick response from Phil. Not sure how you were reaching out to him, but he seems to monitor this thread. He last posting on 8/23.

looks like by connecting the two, you're creating a ground loop -- when you disconnect, you're breaking the loop. would be interesting to connect another amp of some sort and see what happens.

Yes, that's all you need to do for NAA OS.

Yep, meant graphics card!

i would uncheck the cda offload -- this is for situations with a dedicated sound card.

so you're saying that you can play every album in your roon library (whether local or qobuz) through hqplayer to your dac except for one?

shell mode just doesn't load the windows gui. you can edit the shell files to start as many things as you like.

i've got a qutest and a dave -- both are being fed by a simaudio moon mind 2. the mind 2 has coax, aes/ebu, and toslink outputs, so no usb. for the qutest, the options are coax or toslink. i find the the toslink to be smoother; the coax to be a bit more grainy. i'm using a toslink cable i got from sys. concept in canada -- very reasonably priced, yet sounds better than some more expensive cables i've tried. i understand toslink is technically inferior, but with chord dacs it just seems to work.

Correct, the kit also wasn't compatible with the latest Mini either. @Superdad, please confirm.

Desktop rig . . .

@Revelation -- i'd look at a parasound a21+. great amp, neutral/slightly warm sound. definitely recommended.