Here we see close-ups on certain areas of the DAC's black PCB including discrete opamps on hexagonal vertical boards…

… and the business ends connected. Without the optional C-Power box, the X-7 slurps its power drink from a smaller wall wart.

As previewed, AES/EBU and coax galvanically isolate by dedicated pulse transformers. The power supply offers USB-A in and USB-B out. Looping USB signal through it had both PureMusic and Audirvana instantly see the DAC whose display promptly confirmed signal lock and sample rate color. After repeatedly crashing either software player, I finally managed to get brief sound. But thrice in a row, it soon cut out to require relaunching the respective player. iTunes did no better. To play off the iMac, USB had to enter our DAC direct, not first  loop through the PSU. No matter, the DAC's input already isolates its 5V power internally. The power supply's USB 3.0 input simply was extra suggestive. But on our fully loaded iMac, I couldn't make it work reliably. More luck with Windows?

Upstairs for a speaker check, the dapper twosome squatted atop a fellow Korean, Simon Audio's i5 integrated, then connected to a Soundaware D100Pro SD card reader via a Korean AES/EBU cable from Allnic. Because the batteries required topping off, their light was red. 16/44.1kHz signal meant a matching just dimmer red for the DAC.

Here we see the complete first system with Acelec Model One monitors and a Zu Submission subwoofer in the left corner which served break-in duties.