Music Server/DAC in Same Box

There are some interesting examples on this month's Absolute Sound, hosted on avguide dot com.

* micromega-400-integrated-amplifier-wireless-dac. It has it's own wifi network (!) and only works with iTunes.

* Electrocompaniet PD-1 USB DAC and ECI 3 Integrated Amplifier.

thanks for the replies.

David, no I have not compared the Mach2Music to the basic Mac Mini.

Markemark, I check out the Micromega 400. Interesting indeed, but the amp may be the weak link and I am not willing to compromise in that important part of the chain.

if you don't have to store the music on the same machine you should look into a Windows Home Server running Squeezebox software and pickup a Touch or Transporter. The Transporter has a very good DAC section stock and there are many folks who have modded the Touch with good results.

What is your budget?

what is my budget? I don't know, I'm a crazy audiophile, I will make it happen. :-). Really though. At the moment, I have about 5 grand to spend, but not sure if I want to spend it on a source/server/DAC at the moment. May want to spend it somewhere else in the system. With things changing so fast, I almost wonder if it is better to wait, but still I guess I wanted to know what options were out there.