Love this thread, I bought a CX-1000 about five years ago and love it, it's fun to watch someone else go through the same discovery!
Very interesting to see your comparison against the Cambridge DAC. I use the Yamaha's internal dac and have been quite happy with it but it has become wonky in the last few weeks and sometimes does not function (just the dac section that is). I've been wondering if i should get it fixed or try a new DAC.