Pandora

"what kind of system would you put together to play it, without having one that far exceeded the quality of the source?"

Depends on if your a music lover or equipment fanatic (right brain/left brain orientated if you prefer). Either is fine but will result in a different answer.

For the music lover (me), I sometimes run Pandora thru a 40K amp/pre combo into Magnepan 3.6's. That's a "little" out of whack in the cost ratio but it works for me. I do use a a dedicated dock that takes the digital stream straight out of the iPad or iPod Touch into my own DAC then to the preamp. Sounds great but because it's "radio" the sound will be vary depending on the song they are streaming (GIGO). Sometimes that is very good but even the worst is ok and I'm still using the "free" version, soon to upgrade to Pandora One.

You said "primary source" so my suggestion would be: As good a system as you can afford and include a dock and DAC.

BTW, I thought it was a very good question.

Sfar - What I was intending to say (correctly or incorrectly) is that my receiver indicates that the Pandora files are 128 MP3 files. Am I understanding that if I pay the $34 per year I will get higher quality 192 MP3 files or will the same quality files just stream faster? Am I completely confused as to what my receiver is telling me?

Mceljo - What your receiver is telling you is correct. If you're listening to the free Pandora service it is sending files at 128 kilobits per second and if you upgrade to the premium service you receive higher-quality 192 kbps files. That's unrelated to the speed of the streaming.

Whether you can hear the difference or whether your system can resolve the difference is a different question but with my modest setup I can hear and appreciate the higher bitrate.

I may be upgrading soon, thanks.

Thank you for the comments and compliment.

What triggered the question was a combination of tiring of listening to Pandora on iPad speakers (if that's what's in one) and visiting a B&O store that was showing their one piece dock with speakers.

As far as equipment, I have a Harmon Kardon 930A, an Adcom preamp/amp combination (500/555 I think), a pair of Advent smaller models that have been refoamed and a couple of CDPs in storage (Denon 5 disc and a higher quality single transport whose brand slips my mind) in storage. Problem is that the receiver and amp/preamp are something like 30 and 20 years old respectively and have been moved an average of every two years, so I imagine they are in need of some tlc.

As far as limitations, budget is one and my lady's prohibition on "cords everywhere" in our minimalist-styled Miami Beach condo is another.

I submitted the question before I started reading the PC audio section here, and have since learned a little about DACs, AppleTVs, bitrates of different sources. It seems that digital sources can be treated as yet another of the myriad inputs to any high quality system, which is bad news, as I was hoping to "match" a system to the input and avoid the black hole that is audiophilism.

So let's refine the question and ask if any of the equipment I have might be the basis for a system with exclusively digital and CD inputs. Or do I start combing the for sale section here for specific used gear, and if so, what?