I apologize in advance for my ignorance, I am a bit of a beginner.

I am looking at purchasing the Audiophonics U-Sabre DAC ES9018, primarily for integrating with a Raspberry PI to create a streaming system, and as this will be my first build it appears to be a fairly straight forward implementation and I have a lot to learn!

I want to create a balanced system, and the XLR output appeal to me as I would like to in the future build a balanced amplifier. However, at the moment the majority of my listening is through my Sennheiser HD650 headphones which are wired to work in balanced configuration.

My questions are as follows:

1) I read on one of the forum posts it is possible to wire the Venus EZ headphones amps in parallel with the XLR outputs from the IVY III, would it also be possible to do so with this DAC? In addition, judging by the link below, is there room in the enclosure to fit the Venus, as well as the LCBPS power supply and a transformer?

2) If the above is not possible would there be any issue with creating a separate balanced headphone amplifier (enclosure) containing the Venus EZ, the LCBPS and transformer etc and running XLRs as the from the DAC to the Venuz EZ Headphone Amp then balanced out to my HD650s? Would a volume control be possible and/or necessary and are there any other issues with this if it is possible?

Thank you

Edited by moderator Wednesday, November 2, 2016 3:10:16 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified