Does anyone know if there's is a solid state integrated amp with a DAC and USB input? I want to turn my laptop into an audiophile player but I'm not exactly sure how which way to go.

That's the question of the century. Currently, there really aren't any full audiophile complete USB packages other than the Dared mentioned today. What you need to get is a USB transport like the Red Wine or Empirical models (search for them). Both are killer sounding and priced around $500. Then there is the Wavelength Brick at around $1200 that includes a DAC. With the Red Wine and Empirical models you need to add a DAC as well. You can also go with the Squeezebox if you're have a wifi connection. The Red Wine mod of the Squeezebox is said to sound awesome. You just plug the RCA into an int-amp and you're good to go. For a great little desk system try the Apogee Mini-DAC (I believe that's what it's called) priced around $1000 with some powered PMC monitors. The Apogee includes built-in volume control and the PMCs have Flying Mole amplification -- killer combo. Otherwise, I'll have a couple preview items tomorrow with exactly what you're looking for. Sadly, there's very little USB gear in the high-end market but expect some interesting products to land at CES.

Thanks for your reply and suggestions. I Have one more question. Does the computer itself affect the sound quality or is it just dependent on the external DAC? Let's say I were using the Brick with my current laptop and then decided to get a new computer, would I get a different sound with the new setup?

Computer hardware doesn't really vary in sound quality but the compression format does. Rip everything on Apple Lossless, Windows Lossless or FLAC but not on MP3, ACC, etc. You will get a few pauses here and there because of the hard drive loading. If you get a new computer, ones with multiple RAID drives alleviate this problem but, really, it doesn't affect sound quality so much as just a little pause every now and then. Interestingly, computer audio as a whole does have a distinct sound different than, say, a CD player. In fact, there's a lot of discussion that computers are inherently better than CD players. Here's an interesting article: http://www.sonicflare.com/archives/computer-audio-takes-aim-at-cds.php Hope that helps and let me know if you have any more questions.

That was very informative. Thanks again.