Ia a good amp more important than a good DAC?

all the trouble you're causing thomas :)

i'm not surprised you heard little difference between the CA and the bryston. in a blinded test my money is on you, or anyone, not hearing any difference. IMO most 'sources', cd players in this case, over say $300 will sound identical. that has been my experience, albeit limited. and it's easy to do a blinded test with a cd player. i own the 840c. if i had it to do over again i'd get a much less expensive player. and i always hear the mantra 'garbage in = garbage out' and while of course true, the fact is with most cdp's, even inexpensive ones, you don't get garbage in.

amps will mostly sound the same too, IMO. i guess build quality, component longevity and warranty can up the cost, but likely not change the sound much once you're over a certain price point (not exactly sure what that would be). of course there are caveats related to listening level and speaker impedance. there is endless debate on whether amps sound different. see the blinded tests done back a decade or two ago. yes, dated. are there more recent blinded tests? as a statistician by profession, it is amazing and disappointing to me that there are not more blinded tests in audio.

room, speakers and the quality of the recording make by far the biggest differences IMO.

Peace.

Watch out Tanglewood,you'll get accused of not having "golden ears"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tanglewood, clearly your ears are not golden!!!

you guys are making me smile (from tin ear to tin ear)!

The problem is not that there are not differences, but that they are much smaller than you would think given the price differences, and more misleadingly, the definitive judgements for claiming superiority of one product over the another; espcially claims that product A "blows away" product B. Every time I hear such a declamation, I immediately stop listening to whatever that person is saying. I will say that at 52 I can no longer claim golden ears, but I can undoubtedly hear differences, and I would be willing to bet $1 that I could pick out at 40 watt tube amp from a 200 watt SS amp most of the time.