@Blasto I upgraded to the A1008 because when the M3i was connected to the Thiels, bass was poorly reproduced, the highs hardened and music was less smooth. Basically at 70WPC, the M3i had a hard time driving the Thiels.
I have auditioned the M1 DAC at the store on three different occasions with different amps, CD players and speakers. Blasto was there in one of the sessions, and we both noticed significant sonic improvement with the M1DAC even compared to DAC of higher-end CD player like the A1008 or the M6i.
When I went home and connected the M1 DAC to my system (CDP---optical---M1DAC; DAT---coax---M1DAC; Macbookpro---USB---M1DAC), I noticed significant improvements. After a week, I did a comparison of CDP---optical----M1DAC with CDP---analog RCA---amp playing the same music and switching between the two. I couldn't make it out much difference. I was playing tabla solo. Maybe with Jazz I would have noticed a difference. I didn't have a chance to find out because I upgraded to the A1008amp with its integrated DAC and returned the M1DAC.