Hi Mike -
That's a tremendous thread you got going on AA.
Really not much to discuss except for the various value propositions offered by the manufacturers.
As Herman points out there is much to like about one box solutions but this is basically the same argument as CD players. If you have a great DAC already go the USB box with a SPDIF output to get started.
As Herman points out, these devices are based on stock chipsets being mass manufactured. What we are seeing - and are not really used to yet as audiophiles- is the impact of being able to use mass produced standardized products designed to sell to a worldwide market.
As the market settles, I don't think that products will have or manufacturers will be able to justify the kind of price spread we are used to in the rest of our space. One big reason is that there is no need to jump through the kinds of hoops it takes to make a great transport, turntable or speaker. (eg advanced metallurgy and manufacturing skills, sophisticated power supplies, furniture grade cabinetry with resonance and damping controls etc, etc) No analog physics here - not much EE - just IT
IMHO the three devices that have had the biggest impact on most people reading this forum (and Asylum PC where I also post regularly under xmasparty) are the Waveterminal ($155), the Squeezebox ($249) and the iPod ($350) The leading software - iTunes - is free.
Even without the tweaks being offered by the modders like Steve, Gordon, Wayne and Vinnie, we are already as close to as most of us are going to get (or will ever need to get) to a perfect source. We have some money in your pocket. And you can go back to fiddling with the rest of your rig.
Add a few hundred dollars for a better power supply or clock or connectors or caps and you have something better then most of us ever dreamed of.
As the big boys in the CE space start to do the math on iPod adoption I would expect more and more of them to being implementing strategies to get a piece of this pie...
