I guess you're correct on the budget, however, I have the Apple Airport Express as a wireless station at home, so it's doing double duty...and the office speakers were already there. Also, I think you'll see some dramatic price falling after the holiday sales season: I'd guess about January 9 is when the big fall begins. As to the "no brainer" aspect, the iTrip and iTalk just snap onto the top of an iPod and the iTunes/Airport Express have, at least for me, worked like magic: I did no configuration...in fact, I have no idea how it all connected up. And the speaker in my office just plugs into my iPod or computer. I don't know how it could get any easier. Also, if you think the film "The Incredibles" is successful merely because of the quality of the animation rendering, I don't think you saw the same movie I did. But I'll stop there as I do appreciate your point of view.