I noticed an improvement putting the ADA-1000 into our system compared to both a NAD 317 and a Marantz 7800.

The question is - could I notice it under blind conditions?

Sighted tests are funny things ... in the loudspeaker comparisons I did here over the summer, when I knew which speakers were on, I slightly preferred the Legacy Signature SE's @ $6995 per pair to the M100's at $2500-$3000.

When blind, the preference changed, and by quite a bit.