I guess I'm pretty good at "absorbing" the music.  That's my own lingo for more than passive listening.  Typing, not so good, especially early on a Saturday morning.   The very first impression is that percussion has a bit more crispness and vocals have a bit more of a "right there" feel...

Since this is my first post, I guess I should answer it myself.  Just figured it out.  When I inserted the X1, I inadvertently set it to the Direct Output driver instead of the WASAPI driver, and apparently the Rega doesn't like that.  The initial technical portion is done and now I can sit back...

Wanting to move up to hi-res digital audio via my Rega DAC, I have acquired a Peachtree X1 USB to SPDIF adapter (Dell laptop has no SPDIF outputs) and have connected the DAC and the adapter via Toslink.  My test case involves setting up JRiver MC19 and a couple of 96/24 albums as FLAC that I...