Second opinions — how have others (including non-audiophiles) helped you?

Phenomenal responses! Loving this! Please, keep them coming.

xeolith -- would love to hear more when you have a moment.
millercarbon -- so glad you chimed in with such a generous response. I've benefited from many other recountings of yours; glad to hear you dilate on my OP. Thanks.

(And by the by, someone (maybe Guttenberg) said once that when one is listening critically to audio to alternate close focus with more peripheral attention. Take our your phone, check your email, browse a magazine, etc. How does the system sound when you’re not staring at it, so to speak? Often stories of great quality systems will be ones that call people over or startle them when they’re focused on other things. There’s something to cultivating a sideways glance.)

Thanks for the compliment, Mesch. Much appreciated coming from you!

 Its all illusion. Even the incredible $ystem$ in well thought out rooms.

The best way to enjoy ANY system is to get some basic fundamentals in place(figuring where to STOP-that's the hard part) and stay off of audio forums.

I've found that some people inherently have good listening skills for discerning differences. For people around me, I've found that my mother has a particularly sensitive ear. I think my son does as well.

Despite not having listened to a whole of high-end audio, my mom can hear something and describe what she's hearing exactly as what's in my mind. I think people that have those skills for discerning differences, especially if they are not audiophiles that get all caught up in what the equipment "should" sound like are very helpful for overcoming the confirmation bias of thinking something might sound better or even different when it does not.

My wife is not into audio equipment at all, but by observing her responses to what's playing, I can learn a lot about the sound quality of the equipment that I'm testing in my system. She seems pretty attune to harshness. If she says 'your music is too loud', I will see if my actual volume is loud or not. If my music is on at a low volume level, I can tell that a digital component has some level of harshness (perhaps due to jitter or analog noise coming into the system). Also, if she starts singing to music that she likes, I can tell that equipment is doing in terms of being able to "follow the tune".

FWIW, I've been putting together a digital front end and my choices seem to all be trending in the right direction on this 'spousal acceptance test'.

WiFi > Ethernet (WiFi turned off)
Ethernet cable
USB cable
Addition of an Audioquest Jitterbug noise filter to the USB output
DACs: Denafrips Ares II > Chord Qutest > Chord Qutest running off of a battery > Denafrips Pontus II

@calvinandhobbes That's great that you have two close family members able to help. Are they particularly good with words? I find the vocabulary to be very vague but sometimes people not using that jargon use metaphors or describe what they're hearing with whatever they can come up with. 

Unfortunately, my mom lives several states away. My son is across the hall in our house though. He's pretty good with words...at least good enough that I can understand whether what he is hearing fits or doesn't fit with what I'm hearing.