That's a lot to digest. I think this is where I'll pull back before going down the audio rabbit hole.
I'd like to keep things "simple" for now with a basic setup and go from there.
Would you mind sharing some equipment pairing advice?
After some researching, I've landed on the Aiyima A07, Topping E30 or E50 (I like these models since they don't have Bluetooth and come with remotes), and Q Acoustics 3020. In the future I'll probably look to add a sub... and maybe this is when I could incorporate the dsp?
How does that sound in layman's terms?
The issue with incorporating a sub is that generally you want to high pass the mains and low pass the subwoofer signal so neither component is trying to play in it's worse range, set a time delay if the subwoofer isn't equidistant from the listener to the mains (e.g. the subwoofer isn't directly in front of the listener and in between the LR speaker), correct the phase (especially if not right under the LR), and have some method of reducing specific bass frequencies where there is room reinforcement and adding where there are partial nulls.
This is why two channel systems have scorned subwoofers for so long, without having some kind of cross over to control all of this it's difficult and annoying to seamlessly integrate a subwoofer. If you have full range towers you can skip some of the problems entirely or control for others (less room modes but then you just need to have 2-channel EQ since the high/low filtering is already handled internally in the speakers).
So you kind of have to 'choose' at the beginning because retrofitting is more problematic/annoying.
The Aiyima A07 is fine, not ideal as an ampbut good enough for those speakers I think (I don't know the impedance of those nor your room size/db requirements). With a powered subwoofer crossed over at 80hz I think you'll get 95% of the quality you could possibly get out of those speakers with any amp. Without a subwoofer you might find it lacking in the low end because they don't go particularly low and will probably require more power then the amp can provide if you try to force it anyways with EQ, so like 80% out of those speakers, and you could improve that by stepping up to an ncore amp, but that won't solve the physical issue of the speakers being incapable of going that low.
The E50 would let you use the RCA out as a sub-out signal but it won't be filtered. This isn't a huge issue with most powered amps since you can generally control that either on the plate or with their apps (along with phase sometimes but rarely timing). Since these have a decently high roll off you don't need to really highpass the speakers but you will want to give it more power if possible to make up for the inefficiency at the low end.
Again, if you can at all wait I would say get the Flex RCA and then use the Aiyima as an amp. Even if you don't use the DSP capabilities of the Flex you'll get an excellent DAC and have the option to add a sub and use DSP later. Otherwise I'd say get the E50 since it allows imperfect subwoofer integration and then get a better amp at some point (or larger speakers with higher efficiency).