Manresa

If I went with the Pico w/DAC, would I be missing out on anything delivered by a non-portable system (in the same price range, give or take a few hundred bucks)? Any other alternatives I should be looking for? I wasn't thinking about a portable system but the Pico seems to have very few compromises.

With the Pico, what happens when the battery can't hold a charge anymore? Is it replaceable? Does it have enough power to drive difficult headphones?

I checked out the Duet, and it seems like I'd be paying for a lot of functionality I wouldn't use (A/D conversion, software control). By "fewer boxes is better" I meant I'd prefer not to have separate DAC, amp, and a pair of power supplies, but I'm not wedded to a single box. Priorities would be: sound quality price convenience aesthetics does that help?

Ripping everything to an external drive isn't an option, sadly. My employer (a very large government agency) has recently gone completely loco over computer security and external devices are being banned (I'm not kidding). Firewire is on its way out for Macs, so I'm gonna stick with USB, S/PDIF, or optical. If I get a resampling DAC, won't that compensate for the iffy CD player in a Mac? On the other hand, maybe I'll just bring in my Rotel CD player, or buy an SACD player for work. At this point I'm trying to narrow down my options.

I'm looking for some advice on a new headphone rig for work. I currently have a 2004 vintage Total Bithead, 10-year old Grado SR-80s (with new pads), and a pair of Etymotic ER-4Ss. Output is from a Mac via USB, CDs not ripped files. I recently purchased a Slim Devices Transporter and Onkyo 9555 for home, and the quality of those two combined bury the Bithead with the Etys. (The Bithead has actually had issues from day one: background his and a slight channel imbalance which I never quite believed until I had something to compare it with. I'm also pretty sure it just deosn't have enough power for the Etys. It's always sounded pretty good with the Grados.) I'm looking for a relatively compact, convenient, not too expensive, DAC and headphone amplifier. I'll probably buy a new pair of full-sized headphones to complement the Grados, since the Etys isolate so well I can't even hear my phone ring (I'm thinking AKG 701s at this point, but headphone selection is not what I'm asking about). I want to find out what my options are, and which manufacturers to avoid (there are at least three, it seems). Total budget is around 1K, but it's flexible, and if I don't have to spend that much I'd rather not (on the other hand, if someone offers to sell me a beta 22 I might bite). I'm intrigued by some of the Chinese/Taiwanese manufacturers (Yulong, Shanling, Audio GD, Keces, Firestone Audio) but worried about service if something goes wrong, and as far as I can tell there's no way to audition any of them. Of the domestic (US and Canadian) manufacturers there's Purity Audio, Headroom, Headamp (more?). Headroom gear seems a tad overpriced, especially the upgrades, and I'm not sold on the crossfeed circuit. If I could get one relatively quickly an M^3 sounds appealing. I don't want to deal with tubes at this point, and would prefer a smaller number of boxes. My listening is usually post-punk and electro-acoustic music (not dance) with the occasional classical and vintage jazz thrown in. Given all this, am I missing any options, and how the hell do I decide? thanks