You will find about 16 pages of discussion under General Discussion and Support. A number of regular users have taken the journey and experimented with different approaches. All the ones you list will work. You may not find all comments relevant but at least read Steve's comments. He recommends recording to the SD card in DSD for the best sound. You should also experiment with sampling and levels for playback. -20 is best for most Decware amps but you may need to back that off a bit and/or reduce input levels. Keep in mind that the ZDSD is based on a Pro Sound device and has a lot of features you may never use. I've had mine for 6 months and the only thing I can tell you for sure is it blows away all my previous DACS, some very expensive and highly rated. Enjoy.

Sorry to take so long to reply. Haven't been back to this thread for a while. You can record by bringing in an analog signal OR a digital signal. Then choose the recording format you want. This is all built into the Tascam Pro unit the ZDSD is based on. The Tascam is a versatile studio recorder which is their forte. Steve's contribution is to modify the unit so it also has a killer output section for real audiophile playback quality.