[tesseract]

IMO the analog output stage and preamp are far more important that a DAC chip that might have a few more db of noise suppression. Although certainly there's been a rage over DACs lately with the ESS Sabre lineup.

You bet!

My universal player has become dated, but it still slays the mid-fi Sony SACD player it replaced. Absolutely love my passive pre integrated.

I am very interested in the latest DAC's, like the ESS Sabre.