Very important point!
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FWIW my entire home network is running fiber. Twenty feet is usually trivial, but I will double check the specs for toslink connections just to be sure, thanks, I hadn’t considered that possibility.
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I have one. It is better then Zen Dac. I only use usb (from zen stream) and balanced out to a preamp so not using the volume on 200M (the volume knob and no remote wasn’t a highlight for 200M)
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Optical is limited to 24/96 coax to 24/192
This is the CA support site manual
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I think also the length matters
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Mike/UliR to be honest I’m not sure about the difference between balanced and unbalanced inputs. I know the DacMagic has them but I’ve never used them on the Sony, will have to check the manual (it is a 12 year old receiver).
From what I heard the main benefit in balanced is if you need longer cables
I was never curios to go balanced or RCA in my C 298 to see if matters
Sony STR-DE985 rear - no balanced inputs.
I woud start small and if you want more, add an external DAC.
But: spekers are more important in my opinion.
Why have a DAC to do a connection, the CA DAC is likely to better than a 10 yr old AV amp DAC
Go analogue from the CA to the amp hence the distance question
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Wow, what a beast 
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Indeed a beast!
Yes I would start with a streamer. Speakers. And try different dacs after
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Sorry - copied the wrong one. I‘ll correct that.
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This one is slightly different than mine, as I have no Sirius input but I can run the RCA jacks to one of the other inputs, probably the CD on the assumption it would handle the signal better than the aux. Thanks.
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Corrected the image, hope it is the right one now. Excuse me.
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that is bigger
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still a beast! I would keep it, Mike, he does not yet own the CA device, he is just thinking about getting it.
I think a good external Roon-capable DAC, probably even with a streaming option integrated, which is then connected to the receiver via RCA inputs, would be a future-proof solution if he is willing to invest.
But in the end it all depends on good speakers.
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This ^
Speakers all day long
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