Well, I received the iLoud MTM's today! They're bigger than I thought.
I can live with the size, though. I'm going with this thread's advice about not putting the computer on my desk,but more to the side of the room, with longer cables connecting the peripherals.
About the iLouds; I hooked them up to my Topping e30 with a pair of ProCab RCA to XLR cables I ordered and it works! The only noise I got was through the USB of the Topping e30. I can hear "digital chirping and crinkling". As soon as I unplug the USB cable from the Topping, the noise disappears. I hooked up the e30 through an optical connection to my motherboard instead, and lo and behold, the noise is gone.
So, I'm sticking to an optical connection for now. I have the
gain wheel all the way down to -12db (why do they advise setting it at max? I hear too much hiss at maximum gain), SENS (sensitivity) at 4db, LF cutoff at 50hz and the rest at FLAT. I ran the onboard calibration using the supplied microphone and the end result is pretty darn great! Imaging especially is so much better than I was used to on my previous setup. You really feel the singer standing right in front of you. Excellent depth, layering and whatever other esoteric descriptors you could apply to a decent pair of monitor speakers that give you proper insight into a recording.
Can't wait to put them on some suitable stands to get the tweeters at ear level. The desktop stands that I was using for my Q Acoustics 3010's were too high, even at their lowest setting. If anyone knows some good desktop stands for these, I'm all ears!