Steve, thanks for the offer, but £4k for yr transformers plus a set of XLRs is not an expense I can envisage when I’m already pushed on the budget for dac and streamer.
Maybe at a later date.
This late piece of info re 99.999% of dacs decidedly superior balanced out, my inability to go balanced (except at inflated cost via seperate add-on transformers/XLRs) due to single ended-only preamp, and discovering my cdp is actually optimal as I use it ie single ended, is all meaning I’m passing on any steamer/dac option other than a v basic one, with a cheaper dac that I can hope to find is not poor single ended, eg the Kitsune Edition Holo Springs, and even if not ideal, I won’t have splashed the cash in making a big mistake).