I thought long and hard about the length but I decided i did not want anything upfront to spoil the soundstage. I also did not really have any intention of trying any passive till I heard about TVC preamps and I really love the look of your new TAP! :p
I went down the HT route in the last few years and more or less have settled on what I wanted to achieve. My wife likes HT and its something we can share. Shes not really into music so it was not my top priority. Now just trying to improve on my stereo setup so that I can enjoy some music once in a while. So I really cant do much about the lenght. I can use the 25 feet for the CD to the Pre and a short 1 feet for the pre to the amp if that is a better option though. My intention was to use a simple cable like those from bluejeans or maybe Bettercables. I heard alot of cables including expensive ones and cant say I really feel they are good value for money. Between XLO, DH Labs, PS Audio and my own Canare L5C with their 75ohm soldierless RCA, I have to say I prefer the Canare. So the long cable will not add too much for me.
The Opamps on the Pio was changed to a AD8066. The main changes were the caps and and Linear power supply which were changed one each for the Digital and one for the Analog. Hopefully this is enough info.
Oliver