"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.
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.