Kana813: I'm thinking about doing the mods for the MasterLink. I did try sonically comparing a CD internally ripped to the ML's hard drive (at 4X speed, no other option available) with the same CD ripped from the Pearl used as exterior transport (real time), with both ripped versions auditioned from the ML's hard drive feeding the Basic IIIa DAC, and the versions did sound a little different (though not, unsurprisingly, as different as with the CD actually playing live from the Pearl), so I suppose they couldn't be bit-identical. The advantage was very minor, but I thought it was in favor of the Pearl (could be a compromised test however, because the two components are stacked, and as I said they each sounds best with the other one turned off, so using one to feed the other is probably not ideal in this setup).