Running DCS Vivladi DIRECT?

And wherein perhaps lies Solomon’s answer ... for if the dCS output is truly native SE then my experience that SE sounds better than balanced via a preamp (same cable, same length) then it could be the case that dCS->VTL balanced sounds worse than dCS->ARC (SE)->VTL (BAL) especially as the VTL itself is a balanced design ... so lets see

ps the Vivaldi has seperate output stages balanced and SE, and both can be driven at the same time, question is which is closer to the Ring DAC output ... which is ostensibly a balanced design but not clear what they have implemented in analog circuitry after the DAC -- clearly there’s quite a bit there at least to switch output levels and so on (btw interesting side note is that the BAL and SE output levels cannot be set independently ...)

I know the earlier Ring Dac chips were SE in output, in these the analog SE outputs after the chip sounded better, due to one less amplification stage in the signal path that wasn’t needed. (just like a preamp)

Cheers George

Folkfreak, ,
This is really shaping up into a very interesting listening evaluation. It is essentially a comparison of the quality and implementation of the  ARC REF  and DCS Vivaldi signal pathways.This is fun and informative. Time to put the ears to work😊.
Charles 

@charles1dad 

   +1 it doesn’t get much better than this...I bet both sound sublime yet one will be preferred by a listener.

Shadorne,
Yes, exactly ! I'd expect two different presentations with preference totally dependant on the particular listener. Which sonic flavour appeals more. Subjective by default,  the gift of High End audio. 
Charles