many a question to be answered


im relatively new to audio, so please do help as you can.

heres my setup:

xfi platinum (:/) connected to my receiver via glass optical & analog

rotel rsx-972

epos m15 loudspeakers

little lot II+ tube head amp

grado rs2s

any weak links? anything terribly suck? how come when i switch from analog to digital i hear extremely little, if any difference between the two? is the analog using the xfi's DACs and the digital using the rotel's?

if i were to get the x-meridian would it cause my xfi to crap pyramids?

also if i enable bit-matched playback, and send it through the optical cable, does my rotel convert it? and if through analog, then what? please any comments would really help.
cinnamonandgravy
so i figured out the whole bit-matched playback shmorgeshborg, and got my rotel the decode the audio instead of the xfi; pretty similar sound, but the rotel is a bit more open and natural. a bit annoying however to make direct comparisons thought as theres about a 5 dB difference between the two.

anyway, are there any really weak links in my system?

and also, does anyone heavily recommend the x-meridian?
down to two questions. progress. eliminate one more and the responses should start flowing in.