Ia a good amp more important than a good DAC?

I agree with the amp argument, since I think the amp/speaker is the most important match when choosing components and like others, I think the differences between $500 and $5,000 CD players is much, much smaller than the differences between $500 and $5,000 amps. The source is of critical importance, there is no disagreement there, it must be good or you will get garbage in, but it is not so difficult to get a good digital source for not too much money (not saying they are as good as EMM, Esoteric, dCS, Wadia, etc). Get the speakers and amp right, and most decent digital players (the Cambruidge is much more than decent) will be pretty good given the medium. There was alot more difference between the Linn Sondek and a $79 turntable - so getting the source right in those day was critical and Ivor Tiefenbrun was right about the importance of the source, there is a lot of logic in thinking you don't want to amplify garbage - and there were big differences in performance between turntables, not nearly so with digital IMHO.

Tak the step forward, get the SIM. If you are hooked on Maggies (no reason not to be) you are likely to use SS, and the SIM is a good choice. As has been suggested by most, the amp/speaker combo is critical where is most decent digital sources will do fine for you. The SIM/Maggie sounds like a good long-term combo.

Isn't Audiofeil point that most of the fish is good, it's the journey to your plate that can be the problem? Well, anyway, I think we have argued the point to death; yes, the source is important, but unlikely to be a problem with most current digital sources, and that where you are most likely to go wrong is to mess up the amp/speaker combo, so focus there and you are likely to be on the right path.

Thomastrouble, it was my experience too that room treatment is a significant upgrade; to the point that if you don't have that handled you never really hear how good your system can be; and as you likely heard, you don't have to strain to hear the improvements brought by good room treatment.

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.