I am myself a new to the DAC scene and might start in that direction next year. From what I have been reading, th Auralic Vega and BMC Audio's Pure DAC seem to be good ones. I understand that Schitt is coming with a very good DAC later this year or in the new year. Did you go through the computeraudiophile.com site for info on these DACs? If the Marantz SA-11S3 could do DSD, then that would be the player/DAC that I would look to get!
Pelo99, I hope you took our comments as positive critiques. I would love to have your components. Yes that amp is certainly heavy and I would get some square tiles from Home Depot and place the amp over them on the floor. You don't have to spend a ton of money to get good stands. You might look at Salamander Design's Archtype rack that I have in my system. Or they have an amp stand Amp Stand that you can think of. I have a lot of Ikea stuff in my home, including that chair you see in my system pic. But that amp is capable of bringing your Ikea stand down - especially when you have kept it on one side and not in the middle of the rack. Hopefully in the new house that you plan to move, you will be able to place your components more favorably for a "listening" standpoint. Room treatments takes your system couple of notches up than you can imagine, with your existing components.
Your components are very nice. But that Pass amp on the IKEA stand is a bit unnerving - considering the weight of the amp. I have repeated this for other folks and want to mention the same for you - TV (glass panel) between speakers is not the best way to listen to your system. There will be a lot of smearing and you will loose the "focus". Try to put a thick blanket and listen to the system. Check if you are able to listen to the differences "with" and "without" the blanket. Are those speakers front ported?
