Innuos Pulse Incoming

@john1629 - Congrats on the Innuos Pulse. I have an Innuos ZENith mkii I’ve been happy with. Can’t help with question regarding connecting to your McIntosh. For Ethernet, I use the Revelation Audio Labs Prophecy CryoSilver cable. It came highly recommended from a dealer I’ve worked with. 

I have a slightly different setup (Innuos Pulsar, McIntosh C55) and I’ve been very pleased with the USB connection.  
I’m using an Audioquest Vodka Ethernet cable. Galen Carol has a couple of used ones on his web site at gcaudio.com. 

The 8950 DAC is a really good sounding DAC.   I would try it via Coax and USB and see which you prefer.  With USB the McIntosh DAC uses it's clock , with Coax the Mac uses the source clock.    No right or wrong way,  may or may not be a difference.     Enjoy 

Hello @john1629 ,  Yes, different DAC / Streamer combos work better with coax vs USB.  As correctly @oddiofyl said, the USB is not affected by the streamer clock, so it will use the DAC clock (or outboard clock).  AES or Coax uses the streamer clock, and may be limited on DSD files.  Try both.  But here is the thing; a good Coax cable may beat an average USB cable and visa versa, independent of which TYPE of cable is really better suited.  I have personally experienced this.   Congrats on the Innuos.it's a nice upgrade!