Price: $4250
Website: www.autonomic-controls.com
Sathyan said: Supplemented with a high-quality USB DAC and an iOS (or, soon, Android) device for queue management, Autonomic Control’s Mirage MMS•5A can handily beat a computer in ease of use and reliability for local playback. Its user interface and library-management facilities are excellent for file-based audio. As delivered, however, I feel it overpromises and underdelivers in terms of sound quality.
Read the SoundStage! Xperience review.
The gist: Expensive for what it offers, and built more for the custom-install crowd.