Hi Paul,
I’m still here :-) And thanks for the update.
Excellent news that the balanced input impedance is 10K, not 1K. So your DAC and almost all other DACs or other source components having solid state output stages will have no problem driving the balanced inputs of the amp. Although a goodly number of components having tube-based output stages would still experience some degree of deep bass rolloff and/or other sonic issues.
... it seems they still suggest to turn the volume down on the DAC and use the volume control on the amp. Didn’t say with balanced or RCA though?
The voltages of the balanced and single-ended outputs of the DAC are both much higher than usual by similar proportions. So the DAC’s volume control should most likely be turned down in either case. And since you have found balanced interconnections to be preferable, it appears that you should continue with that approach, while experimenting a bit to determine an optimal setting of the DAC’s volume control.
And happy holidays to you and your family! Best regards,
-- Al