[headfirocks]

What have you guys found to be the best-sounding source under $2K for a non-headphones amp/speakers setup?  I always thought it would be a dialed-in computer and a nice USB DAC but my eyes have been opened to the excellent sound produced by some portables and I wonder if something like the iPod+CLAS would beat a comparably-priced computer+DAC.  Or maybe an iPod+CLAS+DAC?

 

[tme110]

you can go to the middle ground and looks at something like the pk100. (or even sonore/sotm/aurality music servers)
 

 

[headfirocks]

I've read that the Sonore in particular is excellent, but nobody ever seems to do a DAP vs. music server or computer comparison.

 

[tme110]

Yea, I was looking at the Sorore too.  But if you don't need a device with a CD rom to do ripping, don't need the auto backup, already have a harddrive, etc and brake it down to it's basic (or most important) parts - then you have the pk90 and pk100- a music player that can't be distracted by anything except simply playing music.  It does have a SSD drive it uses to run though and I think the song that is playing gets loaded to and is buffered from the SSD.