Thanks Lon.
It's going to take some will power to tear this apart now and get it into the real chassis...

Just enjoying the image I get and it's only 5 hours old

With this crappy grounding I will likely go with keeping the Zen at a constant no-hum volume and adjust the input from the DAC.
You are correct of course that once I have the build solidified, whatever sounds best is the way to go.
I am using SV83s so I will be experimenting with the Hazen grid mod tomorrow.
I'll have to read some more to get the opinions on that as far as effect.