I think the DI's have laid to rest the idea that paying more for audio automatically gets you better sound. That's a big NOT! At least with the DI's you know you're not paying for a lot of marketing, advertising and overhead, but you do get what matters most.......great sound.
The Aric Transcend amp is still burning in yet still sounds amazing. The combination of the LTA MZ2, Aric Transcend and DI's belies the notion that one needs to spend exorbitant amounts of money to obtain world class sound.