I see. Thanks for the info. I may still try Octave regardless because it seems whoever tried Octave (A'gon, Audiocircles and a few others) have nothing but good things to say and the quality of their systems are equal or better than mine. Secondly I did try feeding Electro-ECD1 dac with Oppo-95 when I had it and preferred the sound of Oppo-95 by itself.
With ECD1+Syncro-mesh (when it arrives), I expect the combo to be on par or better than Oppo-95. But Metrum might just be the ticket to step up more without spending a whole lot more. My transport for the next 2 years might just be AppleTV (until something comes along with better interface for my all-in-one system - HT, games, 2ch) and Metrum might being "just" a 16-bit or not playing 192 material probably isn't a huge concern. BTW, once the Oppo is gone, AppleTV feeding straight to ECD1 just isn't cut it no more.