Actually enjoyed this quite a bit. A few to many A/B comparisons for me but overall I enjoyed this quite well, good review!

Nice read. Thorough review as always. Sounds like our impressions of the X1S were similar.

Did you try the RCA outs into powered speakers (or amp and speakers)?  I don't know for sure if those outputs are volume knob controlled, or fixed outputs...

Bill - they are fixed volume - it was one of the negatives I pointed out in my own review.  I guess not many people tried it with speakers.
 
M4M - good balanced review. I hadn't thought of using ARTA to measure sources.  Thanks for the tip - will try it next time.