Hi! I just started listening to music again after 25 years of absence. Got a Node2i streamer with Tidal&Qubuz into a Rme dac2fs into a Bryston 4bst amp I to a pair of Dynaudio Contour 3.3 and a pair of Dynaudio Craffts. I’ve got some questions perhaps I’ll find answers here :-).

1. The sound from my speakers when listening to vocal and songs with single instruments is very good. But with added instruments etc the music feel clogged and not clear. What could be the reasons for this?

2. To really fill the room with music I often find myself needing to turn the Dac down to -30db or even lower. Is this normal/good/ok?

3. My cables into the Dac are both optical and coax and despite common sense logic, i can hear a difference, how can that be. Both cables are not high end but just quality stuff.

4. Instead of the Bryston, I also have two pairs of T+A A 1200R amps which are setup as monos, would they better for the Dac and overall quality of the music (I understand that I need to test myself but perhaps there is an obvious answers). I connected them briefly and it seems that the volume does not need to be so high on the Dac to get the same listening volume.

5. Are there any basic settings I should undertake on the Dac to optimise the sound from the beginning? I just plugged it all in and have not touched the manual.

Thanks in advance.
M