Pandora

I use Pandora daily on my system. It's no match for a CD or SACD, but it sounds good enough to impress anyone that listens. I have to prove to them that it doesn't sound good by pulling out something better. I've been way more impressed that I would have ever anticipated. It's far better sound than my iPod on the dock using similar music files. Pandora is 128 MP3 and it takes Apple Lossless on my iPod to sound equal or better.

You can build quite a nice system and still enjoy an improved Pandora sound, it'll just never sound as good as other sources can.

My daughter listens to Pandora as a primary source and I put together a system for her that works really well.

The amp is an Onkyo A-5L integrated that has a built-in Burr-Brown PCM1796 DAC with coax and optical inputs. Toslink out from her MacBook Pro or Airport Express goes into the optical input on the amp.

The Onkyo drives a pair of Cambridge Audio S30 speakers. It's a great sounding, compact system that cost around $500 buying the amp refurbished from accessories4less.

As Mceljo said, Pandora streaming is 128K, unless you subscribe to the premium service for $36 a year, then you get 192K (and no ads or restrictions on how often you can skip.) It does sound good.

I run my Squeezbox Classic though a Cambridge 840c CDP accessing the internal DAC via coax cable. The 840's DAC is far superior to the Squeezbox'. This way I get the advantage of a great DAC for both CDs and Pandora listening all in one unit. Sounds great!

"what kind of system would you put together to play it, without having one that far exceeded the quality of the source?"

Depends on if your a music lover or equipment fanatic (right brain/left brain orientated if you prefer). Either is fine but will result in a different answer.

For the music lover (me), I sometimes run Pandora thru a 40K amp/pre combo into Magnepan 3.6's. That's a "little" out of whack in the cost ratio but it works for me. I do use a a dedicated dock that takes the digital stream straight out of the iPad or iPod Touch into my own DAC then to the preamp. Sounds great but because it's "radio" the sound will be vary depending on the song they are streaming (GIGO). Sometimes that is very good but even the worst is ok and I'm still using the "free" version, soon to upgrade to Pandora One.

You said "primary source" so my suggestion would be: As good a system as you can afford and include a dock and DAC.

BTW, I thought it was a very good question.

Sfar - What I was intending to say (correctly or incorrectly) is that my receiver indicates that the Pandora files are 128 MP3 files. Am I understanding that if I pay the $34 per year I will get higher quality 192 MP3 files or will the same quality files just stream faster? Am I completely confused as to what my receiver is telling me?