Al has to be the most reasonably mannered & comprehensive contributers!
+ 1...Al’s the best. I'm so glad we have him.
IMHO and in my many, many travels though the high-end world, I have found the preamp to amp link to be the most critical, but I do understand the source side of things too.
As Al so adeptly said " there is no right answer that can be predicted with any kind of certainty".