I appreciate your input. From my understanding of your setup, you have the dream I'm building towards for the same goal, so I appreciate all the advice and perspective.
I don't currently have 2 PSMs, I don't have a net XE card (does this help with things like YT videos? I'm a bit confused on the purpose of this if we aren't streaming from another room, although people swear by it), I don't have any LPS (other than the Nano) but I see your vision. Your setup must sound wonderful. I hope you truly love it.
At the moment, I don't know if I need the extra low end. I think it would like it a lot. My speakers are a bit on the higher register (VLR CTs), and my USB cable is a bit on the whispy ethereal end too (Final Touch Audio Calisto). I love that but without enough low end you don't get that physicality that brings the realism together. My headphones help show me that (ZMF Atrium) which have more low end inherently.
Any and all advice or words describing what you value in your gear is appreciated.
I'll link you something I've been loving with the Ultimate Cables as they start to bring effortless clarity:
So many tracks on this are wonderful (and this video has amazing backdrops that change too so it's far superior to all other OSTs on YT for Ori) but if you want one that is a joy with a super clear and agile system it's this one:
I love the vocals and the emotional swelling of the music that you posted. Definitely genre's I would and do listen to.
You don't necessarily need two psm156's. I just find that my system benefits from two psm156's because I can separate my desktop computer from the other components. There is a somewhat noticeable hum or dc noise on both my amplifier and dac when I have everything connected to one psm156. But it gets drastically reduced when I have my desktop separated.
The jcat net card xe helps with streaming from my desktop. Either youtube or qobuz through audirvana. I started to believe that the network chain was important the moment I started lps rolling on the network card. The sound changed when I used the uptone js-2 to the fidelizer nikola 2 to the ferrum hypsos to the optimo 3 duo. They all imparted a characteristic to the sound through the network card. The balance I stuck with was the natural tone of the fidelizer and the added low end of the optimo 3 duo. If you listen to music through a streaming service like qobuz from your computer, I think trying a network card could help lift it a little bit more.
I really do like my headphone setup, but it's the speaker setup that can convince me that someone is in the room. Fortunately the amp I use, the 23r, is both a headphone amp and a speaker amp.
The speakers I use are also on the treble'y side, Omega Compact Alnico Monitors, but my network chain which includes a LHY SW-10 and a LHY FMC, gave those speakers the density/realism it sorely needed. Those speakers in my chain, whether it's youtube videos or qobuz, sound exceedingly natural. But I do have to mention that prior to adding the LHY components, even with the jcat network card, the speakers did sound a little thin and slightly extended in the treble area.
As for my taste, I've owned Focal Stellia, Focal Utopia, Focal Clear MG, ZMF VC, Hifiman Sus, and a few hd600 type of headphones which I use for gaming and movie watching(This may be a hot take, but I prefer the 650's over the 600's). Out of all of the Focal's, I preferred the Utopia's by a mile. I didn't like the hifiman susvara at first listen, because I thought it was more two dimensional sounding than the Utopia. The Utopia felt more layered. But the Susvara grew on me, and I appreciated the sub bass and realistic timbre and tone of the Susvara more than the Utopia. I would be hard pressed to call one definitively better than the other. But in the end I decided to keep the Susvara and sell my Utopia.
What I value in my gear would probably be how natural it could make the music sound. If it's making me think my music is coming from electronic boxes(even though it is), something isn't right. The system needs to do the whole frequency range justice. Sparkly high's, emotive mids, rumbling lows, I want it all.
If you have any questions about my chain or a question in general, feel free to ask away.