Two very different purchases arrived this year.
First was my new Merging Technologies NADAC, the multichannel one, that replace my Exasound E28 and BADA2 DACs. So far, its given a lot of enjoyment, since it uses Merging's Emotion software which is very stable and easy to use. It also coincided with the completion of my almost 6 year ripping project where I did over 10,000 records and prerecorded R2R tapes at 192/24 (using my Merging Pyramix software and Mykerinos card and PM Model Two ADAC.)
My other purchase, at the complete opposite of the price curve is a simple system for my wife who wanted to listen to music away from the main setup without having to do anything more than scroll and click and turn the volume up or down. It is a NAD D3020 integrated amp/DAC powering a pair of the new Elac B5's. I hooked up the old Mac Mini I had been using with A+ before Emotion, and the system plays without any fuss or muss. Only does up to 96/24, but it sounds much more than respectable and A+ downsamples higher rez files to 96/24. The prices of the NAD and Elac are scary cheap for entry level audiophile sound (NAD D3020 $399 for amp, preamp, DAC in one ultra compact unit, and Elac B5 for $229 per pair of speakers. You can even bluetooth files to the NAD to play, though I haven't tried.
Larry