Sonos Connect is $350 and requires no additional computer to use it. Use smart phone, iPad or a computer to control it, or buy the dedicated Sonos wireless controller. You rip your music onto a network attached storage server (DLink DNS-320 + extra drive $300.) If you already have a wireless router then your network is adequate to run a network player. So that's $750. I have happily run this setup for about 4 years. Sonos is easy, reliable and fast. It requires an external DAC for good SQ, but you'll need that for any computer audio setup, or even CD player, to achieve high end sound quality.
A network player is good enough for me, but there are some limitations. A real computer in your system adds the ability to play high resolution music files. I find these interesting sonic treats, but unnecessary to enjoy music. If you do hifi to enjoy the illusion of realism from your system, then hirez will be valuable to you. If you trance into the music then hirez is irrelevant, imo. A computer can also do real time processing of the audio stream, like EQ, effects, room correction, crossover, etc. Although few audiophiles go this route, there is massive potential there and I think will become an important part of the sport in the coming years. A real computer can also run a more sophisticated control software than those running on Squeezebox or Sonos. JRiver or foobar offer more advanced functions.
Computer audio can be a little intimidating at first, but it's really not too bad. You have hundreds of years of combined experience on AN to help you, so it will be a relatively painless (and hilarious) process to get up to speed.
One drawback of the media players like Sonos and Squeezebox is that you can't play a CD until after you rip it (convert the CD into files on the network.) Furthermore, the network players maintain their own library databases, and can only play music that is in their database. New music added to the hard drive remains invisible to the player until the database is updated (scanned.) Sonos does this in about 20 seconds. Logitech server (running on a separate computer) takes longer, but the speed has improved a lot since 5 years ago when it took overnight for large library. I keep an old universal player in the rack for playing CDs, but I only use it for G2Gs when people want to play their CDs at the meet.
Other drawbacks are you can't read liner notes, no vinyl rituals, but you can make up new rituals.
This is a more complex system than vinyl or CDP. You have to expect occasional computer problems, network problems, player problems, whatever. Depending on what hardware you buy the level of frustration can vary, but there is always some. The nicad batteries of my Sonos controller are going dead, so I need to crack it open and repair, if i can. Sonos did a major upgrade to the PC control software and it is slightly flakey, won't shut down quickly about 10% of the time. Easy to ignore, but still minor irritation. Occasionally the network connection goes down, hard drives fail in the NAS, etc. Library backup is something to think about.
Being able to program a playlist of a few hours of music and then just sitting there in a state of deep meditation while one perfect track after another comes at you is a great advantage. Listening to Beethoven's 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 symphonies in a row is a favorite. No more hunting for a CD. Although I still hunt for them when I want to take them to someone else's system.
Like Mike said, playing internet radio and Pandora are a big advantage over the traditional library. You will discover lots of new music.
