@ George,
we obviously didn't try an all-ways test vs a SB3, but, my subjective ears did originally find the SB+ to be a pleasing change. Finer sound - bass notes and decay, tings of triangles/hi-hats etc. I might just try them side-by-side next time I'm allowed a whole afternoon's indulgence. How 'slim' the difference might be would be a hard one to predict I think. We didn't predict the SB+ to be so close but it was. I don't think that means every digital source comparison warrants the same prediction.

@ Neil
Re: the mod. Just find Patrick Dixon on the Slim forum. Last I saw was �800 for all digital and �1000 for an analogue SB+. Not sure if that's still the case.

@MarkS
I think M will know how to do good things to the jitter, buffers, magical apodising filters, etc etc...all of which should make a very top performer.
The key will be "at what price". The issue we may face is whether we are close to performance limit of digital transports now. Maybe it takes a new filter to achieve the next level.

Rgds,
Nick