Hello Jake2:
I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so forgive me if I don't "savvy" your reference to me.
I believe you might be suggesting (and I could be assuming wrongly) that I invest in a better interface and of coarse you'd be right. But, here's the rub, I'm a little bit married to this tiny device at the moment with it's accompanying LPS via 5V. I wanted to see if I could swing keeping it around a while longer. I might be able to if I just lower my expectations and go the coax way. I'd have to see how much the sound is degraded or rather changed to determine my next move. This is all predicated on me actually possessing the R26 eventually and soon (sale$) - just doing my due diligence prior. I had a Musician product and the i2s worked flawlessly, but it recently went out the front door.
The pins on both devices are definitely different. By the way, I received a message back from Shenzhen telling me (after explaining my situation) that I can always have a cable made for the two units but, with my luck, just when I get it made and placed into my little Douk, it just might decide to retire itself to a better life in the audio hereafter.