Not sure how to reply to individual posts, forum is a bit of a mystery still, but thank you Ja kb z!
I think if I like the a23+ in near field then a JC 5 will be in my future for main duties.
Sounds like you have a nice system there, wow!
Any further anecdotes on the Parasounds?
I too was going to get an R2R, the Venus, but I decided what I really wanted was a Terminator+ and that is simply not in the cards, so I instead decided to go with the most advanced "conventional" dac i could afford at the moment.
That Dac has a beautiful sound! I think its doing most of the work right now. Can’t wait to hear it in balanced mode with xlrs ;)
I just now swapped one of the new pairs of xlrs between the dac and preamp and got rid of the rca. Punchiness has come up some! I think the poor Emo would benefit by being balanced. Can’t wait to go all the way xlr from preamp to Parasound in a few days!
Also, the subs are really quite good, as a $400 8 inch should be, but they will eventually transform into REL T7X :)