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Right now i have a nice HT setup, but it fails for music listening. Willing to invest some dough, but i do not have room for a separate 2-channel system. current system: Onkyo TX-NR818 Usher S-520 satellites and S-525 center channel speakers HSU Subs HTPC Windows 7 w/HT Omega Claro Halo sound card, ATI HDMI Out. Audio-GD NFB-12 DAC/Headphone amp all my music is in FLAC and use J River for music. With the Audio-GD DAC plugged into the Onkyo, really no real improvement in sound. no way to bypass the pre-amp in the Onkyo. face it, it works ok for movies, but fails for music. I do like to listen to just the satellites late at night for music. I have heard my speakers on a friends 2-channel system that is Cary Audio etc. and they sound *great* on that system, more than happy with that sound. budget is around $1500, and was thinking first of all a better DAC, maybe Audio-Gd Compass 2, then possible small Integrated amp with HT Bypass? i know that doesn't get high-end equipment, just looking for upgraded music listening. what about a speaker switcher, or just manually switch the speaker banana plugs when i want to do 2-channel music? was trying to toggle between the Coaxial out on my sound card for music, and the HDMI audio out for movies, pretty hard to always change all the settings so I gave up on that. not sure i heard a difference with my level of electronics anyway. thanks for any ideas, not sure which way to go at this point.