Jeff Rowlands Amp and Dac vs. VAC amp and DAC

There might be a few things that complicate the matter.
Rinpoche is a professor. It is hard to be a student when you are a professor. She is a student here. Listening to advices is one thing, following them is something completely different.
I also believe that she doesn't want to deal with private sales, dealers are probably okay, so there may be a problem of selling that Deviolet amp. She might not have Audiogon feedback either. Selling something like that with zero feedback would be very difficult even at lower price.
She might not want to buy used, especially privately. Some people, more often women, don't buy anything used including houses and cars. Used is used, you know, it belonged to someone else, and in a sense still does.
But really, Rinpoche, there are Mogami studio XLR 1 meter pair cables on Audiogon. $95. You would do us all a favour to get them. Yes, I don't believe this will be enough, but I may be wrong. Please. $95.

I can barely differentiate Vedic Sanskrit from Middle Persian, but one thing I am sure of. From slightly different perspectives four brands have been recommended to try first - Mogami, Purist Audio, Wireworld and Shunayata. Chances are that at least one of them would work really well, or perhaps all of them giving a little different presentations.

Bodhidharma would enjoy the emptiness of this moment. So will I.

Not really puzzling. A little chaotic but it's controlled chaos.
Women are not men. Let us pray for that in Old Persian.

No, that's for turntables, but you are moving in the right direction.

Generally speaking, when having digital based transistor system you don't want pure silver cables. They will give you speed and resolution but often not full bodied sound. In most cases well done copper or silver/copper alloy will be overall better. Even in my analogue based transistor system with warm sounding speakers I use both pure silver and alloy interconnects, silver speaker cables. It is not that simple. There are also cables made of copper/silver/gold alloys, and Echole even uses some palladium. Think of it as putting different sets of strings on an acoustic guitar, you tune and then fine tune.

Oh, forgot to mention. Your computer could benefit from good power conditioner, not sure about the dac - after all it's Rowland. Also, usb cable from computer to dac matters too. I heard that better Audioquests are pretty good, so should be Purist Audio of course if he makes them. I don't use computer in my system, no first hand knowledge. And the final thing you might eventually want to do, after everything else is in place, are power cords for all components. They don't have to be very expensive, but probably at least $300-$500 for each depending on length.

And to you.

Time for you to stay quiet, facten.

As you wish, I am a tolerable man.
Rinpoche, I think you should slow down, get that cable that you bought, listen for couple of months and then move on to linestage tube preamplifiers while being prepared to replace all the cables in your system when you choose one. Being prepared doesn't mean that you will have to but you might have to. Inserting tube preamp in the chain is not a straightforward thing. There are issues of electrical compatibility, connectors etc. That's in addition and before musical desirability. And it will not be inexpensive. Some of us spend years to build a system, especially those who don't have tens of thousands of dollars to throw around. And tube preamps have tubes, different tubes give different nuances of sound, it all should be tuned in any particular system. And if you want to save a few hundred dollars and not buy better tubes, forget about tube equipment, it is not for you then. I suggest you stop spending thousands on cables unless and until you must. This time may come when you have chosen your tube preamp. Try to be a good student, all right?

And this purpose remains unclear. As a philosopher, I am sure you understand it. Good luck with your audio quests.