Tjassoc: Thanks for asking those great questions. I listen to classical, jazz, blues, country and new age recordings and streaming (uncompressed Tidal and Pandora). I listen to live music at San Francisco Symphony Hall and Freight & Salvage (amplified and un-amplified Jazz, Folk, etc). I also listen to music at various San Francisco Theaters.
My system was tuned by my local retailer to capture "the image and dimensionality of the performers playing in the room”as much as possible. My Sonus Faber Olympic II Speakers are slightly away from the wall and to the left and right of my fireplace. My equipment rack is on the left side of my living room. The IC cable goes from my Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC to my Luxman L-590ax amplifier. I have a MAC Laptop connected to the Ayre QB-9 DAC using the Synergistic Research Active SE USB Cable (powered). CD's were ripped to my LaCie 3TB d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series Hard Drive (AIFF Format).
Several people have listened to my system and felt it sounded excellent.
Since my Harmonic technology Magic Link Two IC is 7 years old, I thought it might be time for an improvement. I am asking this question but might decide to keep my HT Magic Link 2 IC's. I am in research mode and in no hurry to make a decision. To be honest, it is more fun to just listen to the music. Thanks again for your input.