Devilboy, you're absolutely right. First thing I checked when I fired up the Octave this morning is noise. I use 1M Nordost Heimdall IC and I detected NONE. :)
BTW, I posted this in other thread, but I guess I'd ask it here as well. Octave sounds great cold out of the box (unlike oppo-95 which has a break-in up north of 500 hours), but one thing I notice is constricted soundstage compared to my Electrocompaniet ECD-1 dac. Is soundstage one of characteristics that gets better over time? Or if you don't mind, I'd love to hear what you experienced during Octave 3-4 weeks break in period, in general.