Again, I don't know your budget, but there are also some one box solutions that combine streaming, net radio & services & integrated amp in one small box. If you want convenience . . .

Marantz 510

Minx Xi (We just launched this unit & ours sounds better ;) ) *

Ian

* Major bias alert.

Thanks to all for the feedback thus far. I'm still pretty overwhelmed with options but I'll wade through it all some more tonight.

Ian, in response to your question - since we are talking about a shop system with a really crappy listening environment (corrugated steel walls, concrete floors, air tools), I'd like to keep the budget for everything below $1K.

That being said, I am now definitely seeing a need for a nice DAC on my home system. I've been slowly re-ripping a lot of my music collection to high quality files and would like for my tube amp to be able to talk to my PC and iPhone via a DAC.

I'm actually listening to a small NAD I got off eBay right now at my desk.

Whereas my huge over engineered home stereo got move to the garage when the 5.1 went into the living room not sure I would recommend that for everyone.

As a matter of fact I like the idea of a digital device (airport etc.) and some powered speakers... for garage duty I would think that is more than enough.

In my garage I listen to Pandora off my Samsung Galaxy android plugged into my Luxman.

RE: Powered speakers... you can go anywhere from powered studio monitors like the Mackie's above all the way up to huge powered DJ speaker.

For $1000 and a garage system (lofi) one possability...

You could go industrial, digital device pluged into a power amp pluged into PA speakers.

QSC GX5 Power Amplifier at zZounds

Electro-Voice ELX112 Live X 2-Way Loudspeaker (1000 Watts, 1x12")

Don't know if you play music but hitch a cheap mixing board to that setup and you are good to go.

My shop system is an old receiver and an old iPod touch. Use rdio to stream damn near anything I can think of. Perfect garage setup, put the shelf up high to minimize risk to the gear.