Thanks Al. I just ordered the MSB Analog DAC and it has both RCA/XLR outputs, but the DAC is supposed to be optimized for single ended - I guess. I'm running all balanced IC's with my current DAC. I wouldn't mind spending the money to get a short pair of good quality RCA's for the DAC to the preamp, but I really didn't want to have to buy another pair of quality, longer RCA's to go to the amps - if I could avoid it. I just wanted to make sure that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with mixing the two (RCA/XLR). I certainly understand that there are a lot of variables - listener preference obviously a big one - so I will undoubtedly be trying a variety of combinations. Thank you for taking your time to respond to my question Al.