Good looking setup, Michael, and having a favorable opinion from your dear wife is a plus! I have been following Mike Powell, OCD Mikey, since he had 3,000 subscribers and imo he really knows his stuff and is a straight shooter. I think he had an APL dac as a reference for a while and a dac from overseas, a Rockna, as well. I think the MPD 8 is the real deal and I much prefer OCD Mikey's musical tastes over Jay's Audio Lab's uber expensive systems....