Where should I listen from?

[Kris Bang Boom]

Slowly I have the gear coming togther to try to do some mastering for local folk, already I have the speakers(pmc) the amps(bryston) the outboard(anyday now) and the sound card(lynx l22).So the problem I am having is what the best way to patch to hear things the best, should I go out the DAW through the lynx through the gear back into the lynx through into the DAW recording my master and then out some sort of DAC to a volume control then to the speakers, or should start from the DAW through the lynx through the gear into some sort of monitor control/tranfer console(Dangerous, Coleman, Spl) and out to the speakers , and a seperate out going back into the Lynx into the DAW for my master?
Hope this is understandable many hours reading old forums looking for ideas thought I would try posting,
Would my first patch idea work well if the DAC was highend(benchmark) but not lynx so i could hear something else?

Jaffa Gate

[F. Davis]

Your first signal path that you described sounds the best to me as it means you are hearing the last A/D stage which will eventually be translated to the final medium (CD) with the addition of dither perhaps.