Holy moley McIntosh! Using ESS DAC but stuck at 96/24 ADC. Great concept and very tempting. Give me the dimensions and I may have to squeeze it in somewhere...
My understanding is that this phono stage does not have analogue passthru to the line outputs. So the path is phono-->ADC 96/24 PCM -->DAC-->analogue balanced/SE out. I could be mistaken but that's what it sounded like on the launch video.
I just bought a a Korg ADC to do the same thing, albeit it it does DSD128 & 192/24 out, sampling via single ended line in or MM only.
It would be an interesting comparison especially given that the McIntosh is a MC one box shop.
The big question with a trick like this is, you need some software....so what is to be bundled with the kit?