Just as an side comment/opposing opinion of digital amps: Sharp came out with the SM-SX100 1-bit all digital amp that picked up top notch reviews in all the audiophile rags and webzines.

This digital amp costs $16,000 (!!) and has no analog circuits in the signal path from input to speakers. The digital data stream is used to directly drive the amp output (!). Since it runs at such a high frequency, noise is shifted high enough that it is not heard or reproduced.

Calvin