Running DCS Vivladi DIRECT?

Folkfreak. 
 Thanks for taking the time to post your well written listening impressions. Given the description of what you heard I can understand your preference. I would make the same choice.  I'll always prefer the more involving and emotionally engaging component. 
Charles 

Well written and explained, your plus’s for going direct are all expected improvements, especially the transparency reference (ability to distinguish artificial reverb).
Any negatives are possible the result of the source it’s self, or maybe the type of interconnects used as there is 10mt per side of it and any character it has will be magnified by that length, WEL Signature interconnect is silver, and to me silver interconnects can have a cold quality to the mids/highs but is great for tightness of bass.
I use it on the bass but for mids and highs I use ofc cooper.
But it’s with the preamp that lets you relax into the music more then it’s the colouration you need to counter any negatives.

Cheers George

“I use it on the bass but for mids and highs I use ofc copper.”

george, are you referring to the ICs or speaker cables? Just intrigued on how you route the bass and the treble separately between the components. By the way, my (limited) experience with speaker cables is consistent with your remarks about silver being a bit drier sounding than copper.

george, are you referring to the ICs or speaker cables?

IC’s, I have a bi-amped active to the bass and passive to the highs, all driven from the source

By the way, my (limited) experience with speaker cables is consistent with your remarks about silver being a bit drier sounding than copper.

Every time I tried it it’s been my experience as well. And I use the word "lit up", rather than dryer or even colder. 

Cheers George

@folkfreak Thanks for taking the time and effort to do the comparison. Your findings are helpful and add to the discussion. A great read also!

I was wondering how your comparison was going (this very morning) while reading Positive Feedback’s ’revisit’ of the Prism Sound Callia DAC. Highlighting some takeaways here, by the author Larry Cox, who compares the Callia Direct vs via a Pass Labs XP-12.

[Note: my focus is around the ’notional’ and not the DAC itself]

"Connecting the Callia to Pass Labs XP-12 transformed the sound....The Callia Pass Labs XP-12 combination added a measure of warmth with an increased humanity being presented....with a fuller bodied preamp, like Pass Labs’ XP-12, the Callia transforms into a richer, fuller bodied DAC that is delightful."

Article here: https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/prism-sound-callia-2/

My own experience finds that adding an active preamp injects body and richness and a ’completeness’ to the music that brings it closer to what I experience with music in person. Larry sums this up as "warmth not added but ’realized’."